“There was nothing to be done but write him into the next installment of The Lady and the Highwayman and make certain something miserable happened to him. One did not treat an author poorly without consequences.”― Sarah M. Eden, The Lady and the Highwayman
This is the first book in Sarah Eden’s Dread Penny Society series and I thought it was a lot of fun. The Dread Penny Society is a group of authors of Penny Dreadfuls–inexpensive, serialized novels that were popular during the mid to late Victorian era in England. The Dread Penny Society secretly fights for the political and social causes of their working class readers. This book features two main character. The first is Elizabeth Black, headmistress of a girls’ school in 1865 Victorian England and an author of respected ‘silver-fork’ novels, stories written for and about upper-crust ladies of Victorian society. But Elizabeth has a secret. She is also an author of Penny Dreadful novels She writes under the pseudonym Charles King and writes stories full of adventure, daring, and mystery–all things that are missing from her staid life.
Fletcher Walker grew up as an urchin on the streets of London but is now the most successful of the Dread Penny authors. At least he was the most successful. His readership is being thoroughly encroached upon by the author Charles King. Who is Charles King? Neither Fletcher nor his other Dread Penny author friends know. Fletcher is determined to find the mysterious Mr. King and Elizabeth is determined to remain anonymous. If word got out that she was a Dread Penny author, she would most certainly lose her job as headmistress.
In his determination to find King, Fletcher reaches out to Elizabeth as a fellow author and asks for her help. She agrees so she can be sure Fletcher doesn’t discover her secret identity. As they work together, they are surprised at the attraction between them–an attraction that can go nowhere due to their secrets and the fact they are from different social spheres.
I enjoyed this book and like the premise of The Dread Penny Society. In this book, you not only get the story of Elizabeth and Fletcher, but also two Penny Dreadful stories–one from Elizabeth and one from Fletcher. These stories dovetail nicely with the overall story. This is the structure of each of the books in the series and it is a great storytelling device. This is a fun book and series. You can’t go wrong with The Dread Penny Society.
Content Advisory: Child abuse, child labor, sexism, violence