__ceecee__ 's review for:

The Great Roxhythe by Georgette Heyer

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Not the kind of book I'd look for, if it weren't for the GH Group Reads. And I'm not sure if I would have liked it even if I did like historical novels. There wasn't much structure to it, no semblance of the witty dialogue and lush descriptions of Heyer's later works.

It read more like an epic, as it spans 20 years of King Charles reign from 1668-1689, and moves us through the years, plot point after plot point, yet funnily enough even though Roxythe is the protagonist, we don't really get much of his POV and the intricate details of his intrigue, which would have made the novel more entertaining to read.

Spoiler

So that was a disappointment. The whole of Roxhythe's character trait is that he is a spy, a double agent who works only for King Charles, yet we are only told of his achievements after the fact. He is Batman who does things flawlessly, yet we don't see the action. We are only told time and time again what he is, despite no real evidence in the text to back it up.

The gay subtext may be entertaining to some. I'm not sure GH was advocating for gay men but it read like a BBC Sherlock fanfic: Roxythe is the maverick Sherlock, and Christopher the loyal Watson. And like BBC Sherlock, this was all queer baiting