Thoughtful and involving historical crime fiction, featuring a return outing for now-journalist Leo Stanhope.

Leo gets an anonymous letter inviting him to a fight club, and he is inextricably dragged into an investigation of the murder of the owner. Great Victorian atmosphere, but a bit slower in pace than the other two books in the series.

This book was excellent, it held my interest all the way through. Even though it’s set in 1800s London the story is very topical in modern times and has good historical value. This is the first time i’ve read a book by this author and i enjoyed this book so much i’m going to buy the rest of his books.
NetGalley kindly gave me a copy for an impartial review.
#NetGalley #TheButcherofBernerStreet

Having read the other books in this series, I was a little disappointed with this one. I found it a bit slow and boring and seemed to dwell a lot on leo’s struggle to live as a man. I will definitely read the next in the series and hope that it is a bit more punchy!! #NetGalley#TheButcherofBernerStreet

This series just keeps getting better and better with each book. This is the third book in the series and Leo Stanhope is a fabulous character who is written with so much compassion.

If you are new to this series, I suggest you start with the first book "The House on Half Moon Street" as this contains spoilers and the backstory of Leo, which is important to understand before the other books are read.

I have read all of Alex Reeve's books about the detective Leo Stanhope.. Set in the last years of Queen Victoria's reign, and in the crowded and dirty streets of London, the author has the ability to take you to the time and place and you really feel like you are there. He is so good at plots and characterizations and I have enjoyed the series immensely.
I would definitely recommend that any reader reads all three books, although this could be read alone. (But what a waste that would be, as books one and two are really excellent..)
I will be sad to say goodbye to Leo and Rosie, but I am really keen to see what Alex Reeve comes up with next.
Thank you to the author, the publishers and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

It baffles me that this series and his author are not on the top of the bestsellers list.

The writing is impeccable. The characters engaging and the sense of place and time outstanding.

If you do not know those books lucky you as you are in for a treat.

*Spoiler Alert*

Although this is the third in the series, it was my first meeting with these characters. I'm currently in an historical detective phase, and have enjoyed Oscar de Muriel, Imogen Robertson and Antonia Hodgson, among others.so I was looking forward to this.

On a positive note, it's generally a good read, character and plot development move along well enough, but the book's main hook (SPOILER) namely that the main character is a trans woman just didn't work for me. NOT I have to emphasise, through any prejudice, but simply from the jarring and overly emphasised presence of Thier struggle. There have been several historical detectives where the woman dresses as a man (ES Thomson's Jeb for example) in order to carry out their work, but in this case it didn't work for me.

I sure many others will disagree and thoroughly enjoy the book, but this one just didn't grab me.

The Butcher of Berner Street is the third in Reeve's series of historical crime novels following the investigations of Leo Stanhope, a trans coroner's assistant turned journalist who often finds himself solving mysteries of Victorian London's underbelly. In this instalment, Leo is a journalist stuck writing science stories the paper doesn't care about, until a mysterious letter draws him to an East End club where the owner is soon found murdered. As he gets involved digging into the story and publishing his findings in the newspaper, it starts to seem that maybe Leo is causing more danger than preventing it.

As I've said for the previous two books, the series is made by its cast of characters, and many of the series regulars get appearances to some extent in this one, including Leo's landlord and daughter, his old chess-playing friend Jacob, and his newer friend, pie shop owner Rosie. The series continues to feature a vivid version of Victorian London, combining some real life issues (in this one, there's a lot of focus on the treatment of women and their rights to own property and businesses) with the main mystery. However, the actual narrative was a let down, feeling very slow to begin with and not very gripping. Leo makes his usual foolish mistakes, in this case allowing for some reflection on the role of the press in criminal cases that could've been more sustained, and there was some of the moral ambiguity of the other books, but the actual mystery wasn't very thrilling.

The atmosphere and characters of these novels are good (and the series benefits from Reeve lessening the amount of focus on Leo's bodily discomfort as a trans man as the books go on, which felt voyeuristic and unnecessary), but this instalment lacked a gripping narrative, which made the pace feel slow for me. However, the focus on the ways that Leo tried to affect the police's investigation and the role of his articles on public consciousness was interesting, and draws some clear modern parallels, and in general the series continues to illustrate issues that are still relevant today.

This is a story set in Victorian London, with the main character being a journalist who is drawn into the shady world of fight dens and the murder of a man there. However, all is not as it seems. I'm all for a story having an unusual hook, but the premise of the main character actually being woman didn't work for me. There have been numerous documented cases of women living their lives in that era as men, particularly as women were so poorly treated at the time. But in this book, it just seemed to detract from what was otherwise quite a good story.

So while overall it was quite a good read, I felt it got too involved in Leo's angst about his sexuality, or rather his difficulties in maintaining the deception (which I suspect half the people around him weren't at all fooled by) and I would have preferred the story to evolve more naturally.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and Raven Books for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the third book in the series featuring Leo Stanhope, a hospital porter turned journalist living with a big secret that could jeopardise everything he has worked for. This series, set in Victorian London, has been a treat from the beginning and this is another satisfying installment.

This story follows Leo as he investigates a murder in a backstreet gaff, a low-rent wrestling venue packed with it's own cast of tough men, dodgy management and street urchins looking for shelter. Leo, struggling to make his name on the front pages of the newspaper, writes an article that gets all the wrong sort of attention and finds himself caught up in something he cannot control or understand.

The story here is pacy and there are plenty of false turns and red herrings to keep readers guessing. The setting is appropriately seedy and the characters interesting. What will appeal to readers returning to the series is the cast of Leo's friends - Rosie and her pie shop, Alfie and Constance, Jacob and family, even the familiar Constable Pallett - who are all here.

This probably could be read as a stand alone novel, but I would really recommend that you start at the beginning of the series as there is so much to enjoy for lovers of historical fiction.