The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies
by Alison Goodman

ISBN-13: 9780593440810
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Released: May 30, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Lady Augusta Colebrook, “Gus,” is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents to rescue their friend’s goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband.

The sisters set out to Caroline’s country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots and injures the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past who was charged with murder and exiled to Australia twenty years ago. What follows is a high adventure full of danger, clever improvisation, heart-racing near misses, and a little help from a revived Lord Evan.

Back in London, Gus can’t stop thinking about her unlikely (not to mention handsome) comrade-in-arms. She is convinced Lord Evan was falsely accused of murder, and she is going to prove it. She persuades Julia to join her in a quest to help Lord Evan, and others in need—society be damned!


My Review:
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies is set in 1812 in London. It's not a mystery, though it might qualify as a suspense if you happened to care for the characters. It just exasperated me as it was self-inflicted danger caused by lack of planning. Augusta was arrogant and self-righteous. She didn't really plan things out but trusted to luck, her quick thinking (which wasn't always the best thinking), and Evan to get her out of the trouble she constantly rushed into. She thinks she's so smart, but she's not. At about halfway through, she needed to find one girl in a brothel, knew that there were several girls that could be brought to her, and didn't even bother to get a description of the girl. Seriously?! She's also a hypocrite: her brother surprised her with something so she couldn't argue or say no and she was extremely angry, but then she did the same thing to her sister and felt justified. The other characters (even her sister and Evan) weren't really developed enough for me to care about them, one way or another. And she's massively infatuated with Evan, declaring her love for him after just a few hours total around him.

The author exhaustively researched the time period (wonderful!) but felt the need to put in so much detail that it slowed the action. And she often chose details I didn't want, like a long description of agonizingly popping a dislocated shoulder back into place or the graphic details of a woman who had her breast surgically removed. Augusta didn't believe in God (mostly, it seemed, because she felt she could do a better job than God). Okay, but the author made a point of giving her the current politically correct attitudes. For example, she's friends with a mature man whom everyone knew was attracted to male youths.

The cases: paying a blackmailer for the return of a friend's indiscrete love letters and helping an abused woman escape her husband. The next one could have been handled by the legal process as it involved a kidnapping of a 12-year-old girl from an orphanage. But Augusta wanted save the girl herself even if it meant cutting her hair, dressing as a man, and going unarmed into a brothel that offered every sort of sexual abuse. The last case involved rescuing a woman from an insane asylum.

The only real mystery was what happened at Evan's duel (still not solved) and why he returned (which rumor said had something to do with his sister running off with another woman). He won't tell her anything and warned her not to snoop, but she did anyway. There were no sex scenes (though plenty of mentions of people's sexual preferences). There was a fair amount of bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.