Leo Stanhope works as a coroner’s assistant, spending his days writing reports and sewing up the autopsied bodies of the dead. Madly in love with Maria, he longs for the day when they can be together, for the day when she can leave the brothel where she earns her living and devote herself entirely to him. When Maria is murdered, Leo becomes the prime suspect, and suddenly finds himself friendless and jobless in 1880 London, determined to uncover the identity of Maria’s killer, to ensure that justice is done, and to save himself from the hangman’s noose. But the noose might be the least of Leo’s worries: born Charlotte, Leo is breaking the law every time he steps out of his house and if his secret is discovered he’ll face a fate a lot worse than the quick death promised by the hangman.

The House on Half Moon Street introduces us to young Mr Stanhope and to the dark underbelly of London in 1880. Wonderfully evoking the smog-filled city and the often seedy characters who inhabit it, Alex Reeve uses Stanhope’s unique circumstances to examine the morality of a period where some crimes seemed more acceptable than others.

At the centre of the story is Stanhope himself, a young man hiding a secret: born Lottie, Leo fled the family home and the conservative views of his cleric father to find his own identity and make a life for himself far from anyone who might have known him in the past. Stanhope has necessarily revealed his secret to a select few people, and we find a range of reactions from acceptance (from his beloved Maria) to denial (interestingly from the people who know him best: his brother and sister). The conservative morals of the time period see Leo as a criminal, someone who breaks the law each time he leaves the house in men’s clothing. Yet the same moral compass seems strangely absent around murder and human trafficking.

When the prostitute that he loves is murdered, Leo necessarily finds himself playing the role of amateur sleuth, as he attempts to get to the bottom of her death. What is already a tense situation – Leo is initially considered prime suspect in the death, though is later freed due to influence from someone much higher up the food chain than he – is made more so by Leo’s situation: the slightest slip could reveal his secret and see him consigned to the lunatic asylum or prison. Leo finds himself allied with the widow of a man who seems to have been killed by the same person that killed Maria, against a cast of miscreants of every size and shape, from the respectable businessman who secretly runs half the brothels in the city, and who is behind a sex trafficking business that sees young women transported from London to Brussels, to the brothel madam who has ideas above her station, and the weasel-faced man whose allegiance is questionable, but who is no less scary for it.

Alex Reeve’s debut novel is a cleverly-constructed puzzle that examines issues that are still relevant today through the lens of Victorian England. Leo Stanhope is an exceptionally likeable character for whom we find ourselves rooting from the outset. While it has a decidedly dark perspective, there is a heart of wit and charm to The House on Half Moon Street that makes it not only enjoyable, but memorable as well. It’s a gripping story that captures the imagination of the reader from the first page and holds them captive until the very last word. This is, of course, helped along immensely by the promise of further adventures of this amateur detective with a unique selling point. We will, I suspect, be hearing a lot more about Mr Reeve and Mr Stanhope in the near future. Now is the perfect time to get involved.

I absolutely loved this book it is like nothing I’ve ever read before. I was in love with the story, the characters, just everything. It was absolutely just spot on. Leo is fascinating and his story needed to be told, did I say already I loved it?!

I loved that it was set in a time where there was no technology! I also loved there was very little police presence in the book. This book was solely about Leo and the murders, well until the police questioned Leo, then they reared their ugly heads.

The story behind the murders and the ways and hows of it all was heartbreaking. I mean that ending, I get it, I really do but when you read the book it’s not the ending you want but it makes the most sense. The thing is it made me love Leo more for it. A man of integrity.

I am so excited that there are more books in this series as I can’t wait to see what happens with Leo again. It is just such a fascinating story. I can’t spoil this for you in any way because I really did go in blind, I had no idea of the true story here. I thought it was just another murder mystery, which it is, but it is so so so much more than that!

I listened to the audiobook of this and I have to say the narrator was completely spot on! He got the characters, he knew just went to up the anty with the thrill of it all. He knew when to be sombre and fraught. It just all worked perfectly and was everything I wanted in a book and narration. There is a scene where Leo is hiding in someone’s house, and he can hear movement downstairs, the narrator got everything in this scene spot on. He made you sit up and stop what you were doing whilst holding your breath as you wait to see what Leo’s fate would be. This is not only a credit to the narrator but to Alex and the power he holds with his words, his writing is just sublime.

I really can’t express how much you need this book in your life! Leo deserves to be there. Just go in blind and enjoy the journey, which is exactly what I did. I won’t read the blurb for the next book, I am just going to jump in. If it has Leo’s name on the cover with Alex Reeve, I am there.

I truly just loved everything about it!

The House of Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve is the first book in a new series featuring Leo Stanhope a transgender man living in the Victorian times.

Set in London in the 1880s. Leo was born Charlotte. He works in a coroners office. Leo’s ‘friend’ Maria is found dead and Leo is suspected. He needs to find out who killed his friend to not only know what happened to her but to save himself from being accused of murder. ​

A wonderfully descriptive thriller set in Victorian London.

I was intrigued when I read the premise for this novel. Leo Stanhope works in a local hospital as a morgue assistant, happily working amidst the bleak and dangerous times of Victorian London. Leo lives for his weekly visit to his one true love, Maria Milanes, but all is not as it seems. One day Maria appears as his next customer on the mortuary slab and immediately the finger of suspicion is pointed in Leo's direction.

An immersive thriller that transports you to the poverty, grime and danger of Victorian London, where taking the wrong street late at night could lead to all kinds of repercussions. The novel follows Leo as he fights to clear his name and find the true killer of his lover Maria.

Lots of twists and turns, delightfully played out in the dark and cruel streets of London, a novel I could definitely see being made for screen.

What an amazing storyline. I thouroughly enjoyed it. So many quirky characters from victorian London. I especially liked Leo the main character. The hardship and everyday struggles contained within the story were sadly a very real thing and showed how desparate the poorer people were to get through each day and stay alive. The ending was very clever and totally unexpected. Ths was a great inaugral storyline to what will be a series of Leo Stanhope books and I really look forward to reading them

Alex Reeve's THE HOUSE ON HALF MOON STREET belongs to a genre that I don't usually choose for myself, and because of that, it's always a real pleasure to discover an intriguing and well-written story that I otherwise may never have read.

This book tells the story of Leo Stanhope, who works in a hospital morgue in Victorian London. Born as a girl and having grown up as Lottie Pritchard, Leo now identifies and lives as a man, unbeknownst to most of his friends and colleagues. Only a precious few know of his secret, and Leo's world is rocked when the closest of those suddenly turns up in the morgue one night. From there unravels a mystery involving a brothel, a boat, two murders, a satchel and a seemingly useless item bearing a mysterious name. Leo is determined to solve the mystery and avenge the death of his loved one, even though danger lurks around every corner and the prospect of his secret falling into the wrong hands becomes riskier by the minute.

I found this book very readable and the character of Leo so sympathetic and endearing. The plot was mysterious without being unnecessarily twisty-turny (sometimes I find that ends up becoming too frustrating), and the setting of foggy Victorian London and the dark, tarry depths of the Thames were just perfect. I understand this book is the first in a planned series, which is great news.

If you don't tend to go for historical novels, I do recommend giving this one a try. The setting in time only lends character and atmosphere to the story, rather than bogging it down in what sometimes ends up being unnecessary detail. A great read.

The House on Half Moon Street captivated me from the very beginning. The writing style is wonderfully full and atmospheric - you really feel transported into Victorian London! However, it is a little slow and the characters were a little lacklustre.

'I reckon historical fiction lovers would adore this book!

Overall enjoyed this a lot. Very atmospheric rendering of the historic period and an intriguing and appealing central character in Leo Stanhope, the transgender coroner's assistant. Its the first in a planned series and I will certainly want to read the rest, but I hope the next will be a slightly tighter edit as at times the plot and narrative were a little opaque.

I really loved this wonderfully twisty novel. Definitely didn’t see that end coming. Raven Books have published another corker!

I really enjoyed this intriguing crime mystery, perhaps because the main character is trying to live their best life, despite the many obstacles in their way.

Charlotte takes the brave step into independence and severs the ties between herself and her family in an attempt to live how she wants and love whom she wants. That life is being Leo, because for all intent and purposes he is a man waiting to walk free from the physical constraints of his female body. Free to love. Free to partake in the pleasures of a physical and sexual relationship. And this is where the story becomes a tale of crime, murder, unrequited passion and jealousy.

What Reeve captures really well is the inequality of gender in that particular time period, although to be fair some things haven’t changed much. He describes the privilege Leo enjoys as a man and then the oppression Charlotte has to endure in equal measures as a woman.

Although in our day and age it is considered more politically correct to assign the correct personal pronoun to Leo, I believe to do the story justice one has to speak of both Charlotte as a woman and Leo as the man Charlotte lives as and is on the inside. It’s important to acknowledge the difficulty, struggle and opposition Charlotte experiences because of her brave choice to live as the man she knows herself to be on the inside. The other side of the coin is the constant fear Leo lives with, because he fears he will be discovered. It would mean prison.

I’m a little disappointed this has been put under the genre of erotic transgender fiction on at least one major retailer. First of all any eroticism is only hinted at and secondly it means a lot of potential readers may not even consider reading this really well-written historical crime fiction story. It’s a cracking read.

I sincerely hope this is the first of many Leo Stanhope books and I’m looking forward to the second in the series, The Anarchist’s Club, in May.

This one is a bit of a page turner, and very different!Leo Stanhope has a pretty big secret - i'm not going to tell you - because that's a spoiler - unless you read the back of the book, or look on Goodreads - but I didn't, and i enjoyed discovering it.....but it takes this book in a direction that i've not been in before. Waffling sorry...Leo is in love, unfortunately it's with a prostitute called Maria. On the day he persuades her to go to see a show with him she is murdered. Leo is the first suspect, but in her line of work it could be anyone. Leo is released and decides to find out who killed Maria, the connection with the man who turned up in the river a few days earlier - is he who they think he is?Who did kill Maria and why?This is a great tale, with lots of twists and turns, wonderfully written, well rounded characters, and a great setting. I truly felt transported into Leo's world.My thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy

A sympathetically drawn historical novel telling of murder and the troubles still facing transgender people in today’s world! The descriptions of the day and the characters therein helped bring the story alive! However, I felt it lacked pace and unfortunately I didn’t care enough about the people. Would I recommend it to anyone? Probably not!

Alex Reeve's novel embraces the smoky, dark underbelly of Victorian London life, with careful, fascinating detail. I really enjoyed following the central transgender character - and this book made me think carefully about the issues facing this group (especially given the current controversies around transgender politics.)
The premise of this book is interesting, and allows Reeve to explore a host of issues. I enjoyed several of the minor characters hugely.

A great debut and start to what promises to be a fab series - a solid 4 star read!


Perfectly capturing the atmosphere of Victorian London, the author has created a complex but eminently likeable character in Leo Stanhope, he has an endearing vulnerability which has you rooting from him. The plot is exciting and keeps you turning the pages, the characters are brought to life on the page and the writing, pace and intricately woven historical issue of women's rights was spot on.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel - this review is my honest opinion of the book

Leo Stanhope has a secret, one he will do anything to keep but does that mean he would murder for it to remain his?
Leo works as a coroners assistant in Victorian London. He cannot hide his dismay when Maria is brought in for them to establish the cause of death and it becomes clear that she has been murdered.
Suspicion soon falls on him and he now has to fight to prove his innocence and to keep his secret.
An atmospheric murder mystery with an interesting slant.

A solid series opener. 3/5 stars.

I'm partial to stories set in the Victorian period, a mystery and original characters, and The House on Half Moon Street promised all three.

The descriptions of Victorian London are very successful. The details are excellent, and the passages which conjour up the dingier, fogbound parts of the city were particularly evocative.

I found the mystery so-so. On the plus side, it certainly throws out plenty of twists and red herrings. The pacing seemed a little too slow to begin with, but the action ramped up once the halfway point was passed.

The characters were also a mixed bag. Leo's secret certainly puts him in lots of dramatic, complicated situations. Unfortunately I felt these predicaments were often more interesting than the character himself. This could be because the book is the first in a planned series and the character is young: there are signs that Leo matures and grows during this story and I'm guessing there'll be more of this development spread over the rest of the series.

I liked the secondary characters who were all a lot more "colourful". Leo's colleagues at the hospital, his friends, his landlord (and his dabbling in dentistry!) and various hoodlums are all memorable and leap off the page, far more than the main character.

Overall: a solid series opener. With the setting firmly established, I'm sure future installments will bring growth to Leo which will establish a firmer connection between him and readers.

The House on Half Moon Street is both an interesting historical crime novel set in Victorian London and a sensitive exploration of what it means to be transgender in a less enlightened time. This is apparently the first in a planned series and I will certainly be looking out for the next one.

Our hero, Leo Stanhope, is a coroner’s assistant in 1880s London. As the novel opens, the body of a man washed up by the Thames has been brought to the hospital where Leo works. Identified as Jack Flowers and believed to have fallen into the river accidentally, the man’s death seems to be an unfortunate tragedy, but not something which affects Leo personally. However, the next body to arrive is that of a woman – a woman who happens to be the love of Leo’s life, Maria Milanes, and who appears to have been murdered.

Before her death, Maria was a prostitute at a brothel on Half Moon Street, but that didn’t matter to Leo. He loved her and knew that she loved him. Maria was one of the few people he had trusted with his secret, one of the few people who knew that Leo Stanhope was born Charlotte Pritchard. Now Maria is gone and Leo vows to find out who has killed her. Joining forces with pie maker Rosie, Jack Flowers’ widow, he begins to uncover some links between both deaths – but at the same time he must ensure that his own secret is not uncovered, because the truth could have serious consequences.

On one level, as I’ve said, this is a compelling and well-constructed murder mystery. Although I found the pace a bit slow at times, I did enjoy watching Leo move around Victorian London, looking for clues in the Half Moon Street brothel, playing chess with his friend Jacob and word games with his landlord’s daughter in the pharmacy where he lodges, or paying a visit to the midwife and abortionist Madame Moreau, whom he hopes may be able to shed some light on the situation. All of these people and locations are vividly described and all play their part in Leo’s investigations.

Leo himself is easy to like and to warm to; he narrates his story in the first person, letting us into his mind and his heart. I know things are not perfect for transgender people today and that they still face a lot of prejudice, obstacles and challenges, but I can hardly imagine how difficult life must have been for people like Leo who lived more than a hundred years ago. I admired him for his courage in being true to himself and not just continuing to be someone he was not; I was sorry for the sacrifices he’d had to make in adopting his true male identity and the lack of support he received from those he should have been able to rely on; and I was afraid for him too, because he is in such a vulnerable position.

I should warn you that due to the nature of the story, the type of mystery it is and Leo’s vulnerability, the novel does become very dark in places. Although I didn’t find it unnecessarily graphic or violent, there are still a few scenes which are quite disturbing. The Victorian era was certainly not the safest time in which to live if you were seen as different in any way. I’m sure Leo will have more ordeals to go through as the series progresses, but I hope there will be some happiness in store for him too.

I loved this novel, this had a transgender as a protagonist set in the past which I found completely refreshing. The characters and description made this believable in a world where a transgender would not be even heard of. I also felt the descriptions made it feel like I was smelling the same air as the characters which I loved. Would recommend!

The House on Half Moon Street follows Leo Stanhope as he desperately tries to work out who killed the love of his life, Maria, who worked as a prostitute.
Set in Victorian London, coroners assistant Leo has to deal with the attitudes of the time - as he is transgender, daily life is fraught with the danger of being discovered. The realities of living as a transgender person in an era that is wholly unaccepting is dealt with well - we see the misogyny and abuse that Leo has to endure, and how it affects him. I liked that Leo himself also had somewhat blinkered views- it made him more real as a character, rather than a 'perfect hero'.
The other characters in the story are brilliantly drawn - I wanted to find out more about every single one of them! I felt like each could have an entire story of their own and I would read every one. This didn't mean that the characters were dealt with lightly - there was depth to each, enough of their stories revealed to give this book a layer of detail that made me intrigued for more. Rosie's strength (and pie-baking skills), Constance's curiosity and loyalty, Maria's intriguing past - even the jagged, acerbic personality of Mr Hurst, the coroner. Each brought something to the story, and something to Leo, too.
The storyline is a reflection of the dark side of Victorian London, and doesn't shy away from the terrible things women experienced during that time - violent rape, illegal abortion, and prostitution are very real, and their occurrence in the book gives us an insight into living through these horrific acts and the damage they do to a person.
I liked Leo as a protagonist - his story, his humanity, his character. I felt he was very real and I was really happy to discover there will be more books featuring him as a lead character - Leo has much more to give and I'll definitely join him on his future adventures!