Review: Was He A Perfect Gentleman?

The façade of Respectability

Was He A Perfect Gentleman?

by Pat Backley

Whodunit / Cosy-adjacent

Was He a Perfect Gentleman? is an intriguing whodunit set in the seaside town of Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1986. The book is about Mr Herbert Henry Jones, the town’s bank manager, and it’s no spoiler to report that he turns up dead on the first page. The central question the book asks from that moment on, besides who bumped him off, is: Was Mr Herbert Henry Jones a perfect gentleman?

Told through multiple points of view, the novel invites the reader to become the detective. Each chapter offers a new angle, a new voice, a new insight into the life of the man. Backley uses this structure not to create a hard‑edged mystery, but to craft something gentler – almost a cosy – where the pleasure lies in observing the town’s rhythms, its gossip, its loyalties, and the subtle ways people reveal themselves.

The book becomes a character study not just of Jones but of Eastbourne itself. Shopkeepers, neighbours, colleagues, and casual acquaintances all step forward, each adding a thread to the tapestry. Their recollections are coloured by affection, resentment, nostalgia, or suspicion, and Backley handles these tonal shifts with confidence. The mystery is less about uncovering a culprit and more about understanding how a community constructs, protects, and occasionally dismantles the facade of the “good man.”

Was He a Perfect Gentleman? is a stroll through a town where every doorway hides a story. It’s a tender, engaging, and quietly observant mystery that trusts the reader to assemble the truth from the lives of many.

^{Pat Backley Books}

^{Published: 2025}