Kim seeks Will out when a secret society/criminal gang bent on burning down the world thinks Will has information that Will doesn’t know he has. On the covers, Will is the one with the knife. However, he is happy to be a willing and violent accomplice. He is particularly uninterested in being used by Kim, who uses everyone. He’s not interested in being used or serving for the good of the Empire now that he’s out of the army. He’s practical enough that he has no problem killing, but he won’t mindlessly go along with the greater good. Will is stubbornly moral and follows his own code.

Kim is delightfully morally grey, while also a jaded romantic with a heart that’s just begging to love and be loved. The shadiest character to come around is Kim Secretan. Will’s inheritance hasn’t even been finalized in probate when shady characters, some who work for the War Office, start coming around. The uncle dies shortly before the book opens, leaving Will with a bookstore, but not much guidance on how to sell books. After some lean years searching for any job at all, he looks up an estranged uncle who takes him in. Will Darling has returned from WWI with no family, no job prospects, and no skills but killing. I have given in and decided to review the first two books without waiting for the third.

However, 2020 is awful and apparently it’s hard to write when the world is on fire and your government is trying to kill you (KJ Charles is British). When KJ Charles initially announced the three book Will Darling Adventures series, it looked like it would all be released in 2020 and so I thought I would read all three and then review them together.

Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles