‘A tragedy hidden’: 'The Betrayal of Thomas True' by A. J. West – Book Recommendation
Having read A. J. West’s impressive debut, The Spirit
Engineer, a gothic tale exploring early twentieth-century spiritualism, I
was looking forward to his second novel, and I’m pleased to say it absolutely
did not disappoint. In fact, this one was even better than its predecessor.
In The Betrayal of Thomas True, West leads us into
the underground world of the eighteenth-century ‘molly house’ in a historical thriller
evocative of C. J. Sansom’s Shardlake series (which I also love), albeit
set a couple of centuries later. I remember first hearing of molly houses a few
years back via the television series Harlots (based on Hallie
Rubenhold’s excellent non-fiction book, The Covent Garden Ladies). These
were the places (including pubs, taverns, coffee houses, and private homes) where
gay men could meet and socialise in eighteenth-century London, ‘molly’ being slang (according to Wikipedia) for ‘an effeminate, usually homosexual male’ at the time. A little like Harlots,
West’s novel fictionalises a real, historical underground world in which pleasure
could come at a dangerous cost. In the eighteenth century, homosexual activity
was not only illegal but punishable by death, and in Thomas True, there
is a rat threatening to betray the mollies, whose identity must be discovered
before it’s too late.
In a story full of blind alleys and dead ends, West has an
almost Dickensian knack for bringing the dank, dark, malodorous, narrow streets
of the bustling city vividly to life and, like Dickens, is adept at portraying
the grotesque, presenting the reader with characters as monstrous, outrageous, hilarious,
and ridiculous as their names (Squink, Fump, Grimp, and Rettipence, amongst
others). Whilst he keeps you guessing to the end as to the identity of the
traitor in their midst, West gives us heartbreaking glimpses into the lives of
the mollies and the sham existences they were often forced to sustain, as well
as the horrendous penalties for those who were found out. But there is love
here, too, and lots of it (which makes the heartbreak both better and worse, I
suppose).
I said this is a historical thriller, and it is, but it’s
also picaresque and heaped with tragedy and comedy in almost equal measure. Terror
is met with tenderness, jeopardy with joy, brutality with bravery. Running
through it all is a love story, and the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ narrative is
just as much of a page-turner as the need to unmask the rat. Thomas True
exposes double lives, loss, and tragedy, but it is also alive with love and
exuberance (there are some brilliant double-entendres) and delivers an interesting
gender twist to the mystery at its centre. I might add that the hardback
edition is beautifully designed, with a decorative edge in a peacock pattern
and some fabulously gothic illustrations (like the one shown below). It’s a
wonderful thing to behold and to read—exciting, thought-provoking, and poignant
all at once. Additionally, with its motto of ‘Always together’ and dedication ‘To
the mollies of old London’, The Betrayal of Thomas True becomes, for
all, a valuable lesson in solidarity. And love, of course.
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