Dolly Butler's Eight-Day Week

Dolly Butler's Eight-Day Week is an interesting historical British mystery set in London and environs by debut author Annette Kane. Released 28th July 2023 on indie press Book Guild, it's 336 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. 

This is an Edwardian mystery drama full of suffragist history, animal exploitation, sexism, and other less-salubrious facts of the middle and lower class existence in very early 20th century life in London. It features a rough and ready private inquiry agent who is gay, cross dressing, and disinclined to live inside the lines imposed on her by society. In fact, the book's opening sequence sees a ladies "convenience" in a department store emptied post haste because she has the audacity to actually urinate in the toilet where others could -hear- her biological function hitting the porcelain.  

The ensemble cast is full of oddballs, square pegs, and misfits. It's written compassionately however, and the author does a good job of pointing out their idiosyncrasies without making them freakish or poking fun. The prose is well crafted and descriptive. There are some pacing issues throughout and it does move quite slowly in places; but overall a very good read, and full of verisimilitude and real history interwoven into the text. 

Three and a half stars. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition as well as for fans of historical British mysteries. It's not a cozy, and there are some mentions of stark realities of life during that time period, especially for women in non-traditional roles. It's fairly clearly foreshadowed that this is the first book in a series and that new adventures await. No publishing timeline given for a sequel. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.