I started this book expecting the usual historical mystery fare just with older leads (42!), but no. From the start, it was clear that this novel was something different entirely. I’m going to try to keep my superlatives under control, but just know that I made Good Book Noise from page 1!

This novel is divided into three parts, and each part focuses on a different adventurous rescue mission. One overarching plot ties the three stories together: Lady Augusta ‘Gus’ Colebrook and her twin sister Julia blossoming as they stretch beyond the social boundaries of Regency England. The three stories intertwine so much that they cannot be read independently of each other. I’m letting you know they’re divided into three separate tales to give you a head’s up that this plot arc is shaped differently to one you’d find in a traditional historical mystery.

Gus and Julia are independently wealthy, a point for which I am grateful as their brother is truly odious (by that I mean he adheres to strictures on ‘a woman’s place’). Gus and Julia were by no means shrinking violets to start with. Gus, in particular, has always been bold and brilliant – something her father encouraged. Julia lost her betrothed with whom she was deeply in love and at the start of the book, she has been in mourning for two years.

In the opening pages, Gus and Julia are meeting someone on the Dark Walk in Vauxhall Gardens. Specifically, they’re meeting the man who is blackmailing their best friend. They are to exchange their best friend’s diamond necklace for the incriminating letters that the blackmailer holds. The exchange takes a turn when the blackmailer pulls a gun on them. Gus, with a rock hidden in her reticule, wallops the man in the nethers and they manage to retrieve the letters and keep the diamond necklace.

This is their first go at rescuing women who the law either can’t or won’t help. It leaves them a bit scared, but exhilarated, and leads them to their next rescue mission: saving (technically kidnapping) a wife from her brutal husband. On their way to rescue this woman, they are stopped by a highwayman. Only, Gus accidentally shoots him. They recognise him as the exiled Lord Evan Belford and co-opt the unconscious man into their rescue mission.

Yes, there is romance. From the get go, the witty repartee between Evan and Gus is fantastic. Evan calls Gus his renegade. Their romance is a fantastic subplot to the bigger story of Gus and Julia becoming more fully themselves through these rescue missions. The real love story is an exploration of the bond between the twins and how it allows both of them the space to grow. They have each other in a world that tells them they’re individually worthless without a man. Gus’ romance with Evan just sweetens the deal.

I loved the way Gus narrates the unspoken communication between herself and her twin. For example, when Gus wants Julia to stand behind her in their engagement with the blackmailer.

I glanced at her and tilted my head: Stand behind me, dearest.

Her mouth tightened: I stay at your side.

Brave girl, but I knew she was not built for confrontation. I widened my eyes: Please!

Something else that this book does beautifully is incorporate specific and fascinating historical detail. Sometimes the details are in the brutal situations from which Gus, Julia and Evan rescue people; sometimes it’s in the dances at the balls. And sometimes it’s in the layout of the different London parks. For example, at one point, they’re investigating the site of a past duel at The Ring in Hyde Park. It was ‘the site of all fashionable activity fifty years ago’ and is now reduced to ‘the ring of trees and a few weathered railing posts’. Instead of saying that it is all but abandoned, it reads, ‘Aside from the view of people upon distant paths, we could have been standing in a field in the middle of the English countryside’.

Another example of tiny details that I found so interesting and charming is in how one of the dances was described: ‘Charlotte gave the call for the first dance set – the popular “Butter’d Pease” and “Juliana” – and quickly moved off the chalked dance floor to avoid the surge of people creating their sets.’

Did this rich detail make the story drag? Not at all! The pacing is brilliant. As is the humour, a wry, biting humour but it is never cruel and has a sense of perspective: ‘I had come to the ball to dance with a murderer. Admittedly, I did not have any particulars of the man or the actual murder, but I had a feasible theory’.

Which brings me to their approach to planning these rescue missions. There was a kind of scattered hopefulness when it came to making plans. They would have a clear end goal in sight, but there was a lot more thinking on their feet. Things end well (mostly) as they should in a romance, but there is rather a lot of doubt for the reader that things will actually end well, and the suspense inside that doubt kept me reading.

I picked up this book because it had the kind of tropes I like – historical women who go against the grain, adventures, feminism. The tropes were familiar, but how the tropes were explored and written was altogether different. It’s so immersive that I felt like I was inside Gus’ head, living her life. Describing Gus as someone with ‘gumption’ or ‘pluck’ does her a disservice because while she has those characteristics, she is so uniquely herself, so fully formed and original that it is like comparing a takeaway apple pie to a gourmet apple pie experience. They’re both apple pies, but they’re not the same.

I was not myself when I read this book. I lived a whole new life with Gus, going on adventures and cheering both sisters on in their quests. Seeing Gus put herself first had all the challenge and realness and depth of seeing a best friend doing so in real life. Gus made the book for me. A second installment is promised and I’m counting the days.

Honestly, writing this review has been so challenging, because I just want to scream ‘nuance’, ‘depth’ and ‘originality’.

Oh, and most of all, ‘Please read it so I can talk to you about it!’