A review by richard_a_b
The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J. West

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Overall, I really enjoyed the book.  The London around you feels like a real, visceral and actually rather unpleasant place.

  Our main characters are mostly mollies - gay men that met in secret to enjoy the drinking, socialising and, yes, sex - with the caveat that if they get caught, they will most likely be hung, as at this point in history a conviction for sodomy carries the death penalty.

  The issue is that there is a Rat within the Mollies who is feeding information to a rather nasty pair of justices that are taking great delight in killing the mollies.  And suspicion quickly falls on the new member of the group - Thomas True, who has recently arrived in London.

  The narrative keeps you guessing all the way through - is the “betrayal” in the title one that Thomas is guilty of or is be the one betrayed?  The characters are Dickensian in their nastiness, especially Queed who enjoys hideous torture (the bull he uses is a real thing, by the way).

  There were a couple of times that the choice of words in the narrative annoyed me - they seemed to be contradicting what was established later, but by the time you get to the end of the book you understand why it was done and it makes sense.

  Calling the mollies by their alter-ego names at some points of the book gets a little annoying, because it means you need to learn two names for each character, and occasionally they are referred to as “she” when they are dressed up - but not consistently leading me to wonder why bother in the first place?
  There is a strange moment which 

  But book quite a lot in terms of  all in al me. There is a visit to these weird kids in some dodgy l a very en complex that felt like it was from a completely different genre of novel. In the middle of say, Rivers of London, it would’ve made a lot of sense. In the middle of this I just don’t get what it was doing here. It could quite easily be removed totally and not affect the story.
  There was also the red herring about the guilty Molly being present at a specific gathering in the book. It actually felt like misdirection for the sake of it.
  The violence is very graphic however I felt it helped to illustrate the toxicity of the period and it never quite went too far, although it went close.
  So, overall, an enjoyable book that keeps you on your toes until literally the final page, with the caveat that there are some odd bits in there as well.