The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

The Duke at Hazard (Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune, 2)
KJ Charles
Orion Fiction, 2024
Five stars

At first I thought this was going to be a “Prince and the Pauper” sort of story. What it turned out to be is the tale of two young men trapped by social definitions assigned to them by their fathers. That’s extremely simplistic, but it’s a good shorthand. Vernon Crosse, the Duke of Severn, is trapped in the rich and powerful persona he acquired (along with an ancestral ring) at the age of six when his father died. Daizell Charnage who was at Eton with Vernon, is trapped by the disgrace and downfall of his father, without ever understanding exactly what had happened.

Vernon (who is almost never called Vernon in the book) responded by suppressing his true self to live up to the impossible standards imposed on him by his loving but smothering family. In other words, he has never once done anything other than what he felt others expected of him.

Well, actually he does something outside the bounds of his social position just once; and finds himself robbed and naked in an inn.

Daizell, however, was never particularly well-behaved, and responded to the shock and shame of his parents’ betrayal by spiraling down to a point just short of the gutter. He finds himself living on the edge of society and earning his keep by cutting paper silhouettes in exchange for room and board and a meager thread of social acceptance.

Shed of all the trappings of his family and position, Cassian finds himself alone on the road, trying to find the man who robbed him. Way in over his head, he turns to Daizell Charnage, whom he meets by chance as he struggles to get a room at a road house. The incognito Duke and the fallen bon-vivant join forces, and Cassian’s gentle demeanor begins to revive Daizell’s self-respect, even as Daizell teaches Cassian the ways of the real world.

The light-hearted romantic pas-de-deux between the two men provides the central motif in a very complexly woven narrative. The contrasting positions of Cassian and Daizell shines a cynical light on the workings of British society. Both Cassian and Daizell begin to question their unthinking acceptance of society’s standards versus what is in fact morally right. It is not an easy road, and I confess that I had to work to follow the logic that drives Daizell’s emotional tumult in his feelings for Cassian. It is worth the effort, and the story is enormously satisfying in the way it handles difficult ideas.