Unfit to Print

Unfit to Print

by K.J. Charles
Setting: England
Published on July 10, 2018
Pages: 145

When crusading lawyer Vikram Pandey sets out in search of a missing youth, his investigations take him to Holywell Street, London’s most notorious address. He expects to find a disgraceful array of sordid bookshops. He doesn’t expect one of them to be run by the long-lost friend whose disappearance and presumed death he’s been mourning for thirteen years.

Gil Lawless became a Holywell Street bookseller for his own reasons, and he’s damned if he’s going to apologise or listen to moralising from anyone. Not even Vikram; not even if the once-beloved boy has grown into a man who makes his mouth water.

Now the upright lawyer and the illicit bookseller need to work together to track down the missing youth. And on the way, they may even learn if there’s more than just memory and old affection binding them together...

I read this book immediately after A Gentleman Never Keeps Score.  The two fit together nicely because they share the theme of sexual abuse/exploitation of teenage boys due to poverty.

Gil is a bastard child of a rich family.  When his father died, his older half-brother cut off his education and funds.  In order to survive he was a prostitute.  Now he runs a bookstore that sells pornography, which is illegal.

Vikram is a lawyer who takes some pro bono cases in London’s Indian community.  He knew Gil at school where they bonded over being the only dark-skinned people.  He has always wondered what happened to his friend when he suddenly left school but no one would answer his questions.  Vikram is investigating the disappearance of an Indian teen who worked as a prostitute.  The only clue is a studio photo that the boy’s parents had.  There is no way he could afford to have bought it.  Vikram guesses he may have been modeling for erotic photographers and was given the formal portrait as partial payment.

There is a bit of over the top serendipity in the main characters meeting.  It is like, “I’m searching for this lost boy because it reminds me of my former best friend who went missing.  I’ll go to this bookstore.  Oh, look!  There is my missing best friend.  Imagine that!”

Vikram wants to renew his friendship with Gil but has a very hard time accepting the world Gil lives in.  He is uncomfortable with the life his friend was forced to lead while he continued his comfortable life in school and university.  Gil is cynical about Vikram’s desire to help people because in his life he hasn’t seen many people with that motivation.

This is a novella but there is a good amount of character growth in it.  It was interesting to find out all about the Victorian pornography trade.  I haven’t seen that as a basis for a romance before. Â