Mina Halliday’s father has been unfairly accused and convicted of stealing jewels that had been brought into his shop. He is sent to Australia, and Mina will do anything to win his freedom. With nowhere else to go, she takes a job at The Pleasure Emporium as a barmaid. She also uses her writing skills to pen letters to possible customers, enticing them to visit the bordello.

She hopes those writing skills will also help her catch the person who framed her father. Mina has some suspects in mind, and she’s sending them letters. Now all she has to do is wait for them to show up, so she can investigate.

Chief Constable Salter Lambrick has a murder to solve. Someone has done in Lord Rodrick Prescott and one of the clues is an erotic letter found in Prescott’s pocket. When Lambrick follows that lead he finds himself at The Pleasure Emporium, and quickly discovers Mina as its author.

When he discovers her real reasons for seeking our Lord Prescott he tells her to stay out of his investigation. But Mina is determined to find the man responsible for her father’s incarceration. And Salter is determined to find a killer. Can the two of them go about obtaining their separate goals and not cross paths, or fall in love?

Gentlemen Behaving Badly started out with a bang. I found Mina’s character to be likable, and more than a little naïve. Her determination to free her father endeared her to me, and I liked the fact that she didn’t back down from a challenge.

Salter is a lawman resolved to finding the truth. I found him to be a great hero, at first, and then he shot a gun at Mina while she was in the Thames, then bound her wrists and made her walk behind his horse through the streets of London. That killed his character for me. Even if he wasn’t aiming at her, only near her, it still put her in danger, and his hero status flew out the window.

The resolution of the book was enjoyable, but I’m afraid Salter never quite recovered in my eyes. This is the second book in the Pleasure Emporium Series. Although the book is set partially in a bordello, the sex is light. But Mina’s battle as she fights against her self-image and works to free her father make the book heavy on the emotional side and made me want to finish it.

Readers who enjoy a little mystery with their romance, and who don’t mind a flawed hero, will enjoy Gentlemen Behaving Badly.