Hi guys! We have Jackson Marsh visiting today with his new release Deviant Desire, we have a brilliant guest post, a great excerpt, a fantastic giveaway and my review, so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~
Deviant Desires
Jackson Marsh
The Victorian East End lives in fear of the Ripper and his mission to kill rent boys. Silas Hawkins, nineteen and forging a life on the streets could well be the next victim, but when he meets Archer, his life changes forever. Young, attractive and rich, Archer is Viscount Clearwater, a philanthropist, adventurer and homosexual.
When Archer suspects the Ripper is killing to lure him to a confrontation, he risks his reputation and his life to stop the madman’s murders. Every man must play his part, including Silas.
A mashup of mystery, romance and adventure, Deviant Desire is set in an imaginary London of 1888. The first in an on-going series, it takes the theme of loyalty and friendship in a world where homosexuality is a crime. Secrets must be kept, lovers must be protected, and for Archer and Silas, it marks the start of their biggest adventure – love.
Warnings: Action-violence (fights) and descriptions of murders and bullying.
Jackson Marsh!
How historically accurate is Deviant Desire?
I am tempted to say, ‘Not historically accurate at all,’ but, in places it is. Let me explain.
Deviant Desire takes place in an ‘imaginary London of 1888’, and that’s made clear in the blurb. I didn’t set out to present my own Ripper theory, far from it. I used the events of the past as the spark for a ‘What if?’ story. ‘What if someone like the Ripper killed male prostitutes, not female? It’s as simple as that, and that means, of course, that it can never be historically accurate.
Having said that, I have read many books, papers and articles about Jack the Ripper, and I am as intrigued as everyone else about who it might have been. I have lived in the area and know it well. I also enjoy reading biographies, history textbooks and factual accounts of life in the past, so I had some knowledge of Victorian England. In that respect, a lot of what’s in the book is as historically factual as I can make it. I’m talking about conditions, way of life, language, and so on. Also, the criminality of being gay, the existence of male brothels, things like the Cleveland Street scandal of 1889 (inspiration for a future book in the series), fashions, aristocracy and servants, even Mrs Beeton and her work on running a Victorian household. I’ve tried to keep many historically accurate facts around an invented story, which is one of the reasons I have changed the names of locations. Even though the blurb says this is an imaginary London of 1888 (it’s only ever referred to as ‘the city’, but it’s pretty obvious where we are), I didn’t want anyone to cry ‘This is not historically accurate!’ Of course it isn’t. One thing we do know about Jack the Ripper is that he killed women. The creativity started with ‘What if he killed men?’
That’s the world in which the characters exist, and it’s one aspect of Deviant Desire. Another is the love story.
I write Mashups, a love plot, a mystery, a thriller plot and a cast of characters who provide subplots to do with male-male attraction. So, you’re not going to read a story that’s 100% a love story, nor one that’s 100% a mystery, but where the mystery-history side of things is imaginary within facts, if you like, the love story is real no matter where or when it took place. Two guys fall in love under dire circumstances; it’s either a classic or a cliché, but there’s nothing wrong with a cliché if that’s what you like to read. So, the facts around the love story are historically accurate. To be homosexual was illegal and to invite a rent boy to your home was social suicide, but we can’t help falling in love and, hopefully, the emotions that the characters display are accurate, as they would be if the story was set 100 years later.
So, is Deviant Desire historically accurate? Well, there’s truth in the love story, some truth in the locations and historical detail, and no truth at all in my Ripper-killing-renters mystery plot. Hey, in the end, all I wanted was to give you an entertaining read, and I hope that’s what Deviant Desire is.
Excerpt!
Silas and Fecker, two renters from the East End, have been brought to Clearwater House to discuss their plight with The Viscount Clearwater. Thomas, the handsome redheaded footman, prepares them for the meeting.
They were led into a short passage of closed doors, past a hatstand and into a cavern. At least, that’s what it felt like. The ceiling was arched and high, and the walls tiled. The far wall was taken up by a recess that housed a fireplace and ovens, a row of barred windows lined the top of another and beneath these stood huge dressers displaying pans that glinted the colour of Thomas’ hair. It was all set around a massive table with a central avenue of jars lined regimentally from one end to the other. It was hard not to swear in awe, and it suddenly occurred to Silas that he was warm. It was the first time in weeks.
He was made to wash his hands in a sink and do what he could to tidy his face and hair while Thomas stood over him and Fecks waited for his turn. It took Silas a full five minutes to scrape the crud from beneath his fingernails. Luckily for him, the kitchen smelt of pie and herbs, and it masked the smell of his clothes. He was grateful that he’d not been made to take his shoes off.
Thomas gave Fecks instructions to wash and wait at the table before he beckoned Silas to follow him through to another room.
‘You pissed off with me, Tommy?’ Silas asked, when they were alone in the servants’ hall.
‘Do not speak until you are…’
‘Yeah, I heard you.’
Silas helped himself to a chair at another long, worn table, but Thomas told him to stay standing facing a passageway and a staircase.
‘I thought we got along fine last night,’ Silas said, doing as he was told, but choosing to stand directly beside Thomas and close.
‘Be quiet.’ Thomas took a step forward and away.
‘Your dick was happy to say hello.’
‘I said, be quiet.’ It was more of a hiss than a sentence.
‘Why you being mean to me, Tommy?’ Silas inched closer.
‘Please, shut up.’ Thomas took another step.
Silas caught up. ‘At this rate we’ll be in the front garden by the time you tell me what’s pissing you off. Is it ‘cos you fancy me?’
‘Be quiet.’
‘Or is it ‘cos you find my kind… What was the word? Disgusting.’
‘Stop it,’ Thomas insisted. ‘Now kindly…’ He was interrupted by a sensation completely new to him and gasped. ‘Get your hand off my backside.’
‘Want it on your cock instead?’
Silas slid his hand towards the front of Thomas’ trousers, but the footman turned on him, grabbed him by the throat and held him against the sideboard, rattling crockery.
‘What are you playing at?’ Thomas whispered through gritted teeth.
Unconcerned by the hold Thomas had, Silas grinned. A swift kneeing and the man would be in agony, but instead of raising his leg, he raised his hand and cupped Thomas’ crotch.
The footman’s green eyes bored into him, and their anger intensified.
‘Why are you doing this?’ Thomas pleaded. His cock was hardening, his cheeks flaming, and his grip tightened.
‘What do you want?’ Silas leered.
He searched Thomas’ face, but found no answer. He didn’t want to hurt the man, he just wanted to know where he stood, but there was only one way out. Silas pulled Thomas to him by his cock and pressed their mouths together with a clash of teeth.
‘Oh.’ Fecker appeared in the doorway. ‘I hear noise, but it is only you fucking.’
Thomas immediately released Silas and pushed himself away. He straightened his hair and wrestled with the front of his trousers.
‘You safe, Banyak?’ the Ukrainian asked.
‘Go on with you, I’m fine,’ Silas said, gasping for air as he stared hard at Thomas.
‘I wait in here.’ Fecker returned to the kitchen and Thomas returned to being a footman.
‘You are His Lordship’s guest,’ he said with great restraint. ‘You will not behave like that again.’
‘Thought you’d like it, Tommy.’
‘And stop calling me that, you guttersnipe.’
Whatever Silas had been trying to achieve, he forgot about it when footsteps overhead suggested Fecks had intervened just in time. Sexually charged though he was, Silas stood behind Thomas and left him alone. It was only fair.
Whoever was coming was taking their time, and the footsteps stopped at the top of the stairs where a muffled discussion took place. It gave Silas time to clear his thoughts, but it was in vain. He couldn’t move them on from Thomas, what had just happened and how it left him trembling. Where had the need to kiss him come from? He thought that he had picked up from Thomas a possibility of something new, perhaps something physical that was outside his normal boundary of sex for money. Thomas had potential for… for what?
Silas was confused. Maybe he wanted more than sex, but he had Fecks for companionship, he didn’t need anything else. Thomas was someone new, an unknown quantity and gave an impression of being amenable to Silas’ advances, but what did that all mean? What was this incomprehensible longing gnawing his insides? It wasn’t just physical attraction to other men, it went deeper and was disturbing. The conundrum occupied him until the mumbling upstairs stopped, and Thomas stood to attention as the viscount entered.
The click of the footman’s heels broke Silas’ thoughts and he looked up into the eyes of the most striking man he had ever seen. At that moment, knew his life would never be the same.
Clearwater Mysteries series!
The Clearwater Mysteries is a new series from author Jackson Marsh. Set in an imaginary London of 1888, the series is a mashup of themes. Gay romance, mystery, action, adventure, some comedy and plenty of realism, with known historical facts twisted to suit the Clearwater world. With viscounts and butlers, rent boys, messenger boys and footmen, the principal characters are gay living in a world where homosexuality is illegal. Falling in love, dodging death, preventing catastrophes, solving clues and, from time to time, getting down to some erotic sex, each book in the series gives the cast a new challenge set against the background of Victoriana and the classic on-going battle between good and evil.
‘Deviant Desire,’ is the first book in the series. A mystery/romance, it sets up two main characters, the tone of the books to come, and the period in which the imagined world exists.
Recently elevated to the title of Viscount Clearwater following the unexpected death of his father, the 29-year-old Honourable Archer Riddington finds himself with the city house, a country house and more wealth than he needs. For many, this would be an opportunity to kick back and enjoy your fortune, but Archer is a philanthropist and has set his mind on helping the destitute men of the East End where, as the story starts, the Ripper has been killing ‘renters.’
Through his work, Archer meets Silas Hawkins, a street-wise 19-year-old son of an Irish immigrant who came to the city four years ago to find work. Gay, Silas is canny, careful, and has high standards when it comes to ethics, despite his occupation as an East End renter. Along with his straight best friend, a 19-year-old, straight Ukrainian, Fecker, he is called to assist Lord Clearwater, and the two instantly fall in love.
‘Deviant Desire‘ has been described as ‘Downton Abbey meets Jack The Ripper’, but the ‘Ripper’ of Jackson’s story, although influenced by the author’s interest in the real crimes, is also imaginary. The story unfolds through a series of clues and twists to reach an action finale, typical of Jackson’s work. In fact, the series develops from insta-love between Archer and Silas to expand their on-going love story and mingle it with that of some of the servants and others. While the background is homosexuality in Victorian London and future books will draw on the 1889 Cleveland Street Scandal and other aspects of Victorian homosexual life, historical facts are used only as inspiration.
‘Twisted Tracks,’ book two in the series, follows on directly from ‘Deviant Desire,’ and is due out in May 2019. ‘Twisted Tracks’ brings together the series’ main core of actors, the viscount, Silas, and three servants, all male and in their 20s. We can’t give too much away here, as one thing that’s clear about The Clearwater Mysteries is that twists are aplenty, there’s always a mystery for the characters and readers to get their teeth into, it’s as historically accurate as possible, with clue solving, romance, some erotica, feel-good, drama, action and adventure.
‘Unspeakable Acts‘, book three, due out later in 2019, takes our characters to the opera house with a blackmail mystery set against the background of theatre and The Cleveland Street scandal, expect it’s not. In this series, it’s ‘Cleaver Street’ as, again, Jackson mixes what was real with what’s created especially for the Clearwater world.
The Clearwater Mysteries is an on-going series which should be read in order of publication.
About Jackson!
Jackson was born in 2017 as the penname for me (James) so that I could publish my new gay fiction independently from my other writing work. I was born on the south coast of England during a blizzard, but now like to warm thing up with MM romance novels, gay mysteries and some occasional erotica. In 2007 I was awarded and EGPA award for my erotic short stories, and in 2018 I won a Best Screenplay award for one of my films. I am a diverse writer with thrillers, comedies and horror stories under my James belt, and now romance and mystery under my Jackson belt.
At the moment I am concentrating on two genres: older/younger MM romance, and youth mysteries with early 20s main characters and a love story included.
I live on a Greek island with my husband. My interests outside of writing and reading are outdoor pursuits, traveling, piano and genealogy. That’s probably why my books tend to involve characters who are musicians, writers, mystery-solvers and rock climbers; there’s a bit of me in every one.
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Giveaway!
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Review
Title: Deviant Desires
Series: The Clearwater Mysteries 01
Author: Jackson Marsh (7th March 2019)
Genre: Historical, Mystery
Length: Novel (286pgs)
ISBN: B07PH15H6R
Publisher: Jackson Marsh
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: 💖💖💖💖 4 Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: The Victorian East End lives in fear of the Ripper and his mission to kill rent boys. Silas Hawkins, nineteen and forging a life on the streets could well be the next victim, but when he meets Archer, his life changes forever. Young, attractive and rich, Archer is The Viscount Clearwater, a philanthropist, adventurer and homosexual.
When Archer suspects the Ripper is killing to lure him to a confrontation, he risks his reputation and his life to stop the madman’s murders. Every man must play his part, including Silas.
Purchase Link: Amazon US | Amazon UK
Review: This is an interesting story that takes the Jack the Ripper story and gives it a twist, throw in an Aristocrat who is determined to help out the unfortunate young men from the poverty stricken East End of London and you get a very enjoyable read.
Archer has inherited the title of Viscount Clearwater and sets about being as different from his father as he possible can. He has decided to aid those men less fortunate than him and with the aid of his butler, Trip, and his head footman, Thomas, he sets about finding a person who can aid him in his quest… and he starts to dig into the gruesome murders of rent boys.
Silas is the young man who helps Archer, with the aid of his friend Andrej (also known as Fecker) as they describe the lives they have lived. Silas is also drawn to the handsome slightly older man, but with their positions in life it’s not something he can dwell on.
I enjoyed this story and was impressed with the descriptions of the dirty smelly East End. With short descriptions we are treated to the reality of the treatment of poor and the lives they live, which is a stark contrast to the cleaner more fragrant world of the rich aristocrats.
The story starts off slow, introducing each character, both main and secondary, in their settings, we get to know what they are like as they go about their day to day lives before they are drawn together sparking an adventure for all of them. I’m not gonna delve much into the story as I really don’t want to spoil things for readers, but I will tell you that as a mystery it’s wonderful, as a historical it’s settings are rich easily transporting you to the dank streets and the dour pubs, as a love story it’s a bit of a rollercoaster ride.
I found that I liked all the characters and that they were a perfect mix with a rich and broad dialogue. Each character has a unique personality; you become invested in their journey and follow along on the twists and turns.
I recommend this to those who love historical mysteries, interesting characters, wonderful story telling and ending that has you waiting in eager anticipation for the next book.
