When Does "Secret Pleasures" (1995) Take Place?
"Secret Pleasures" is a romance crime novel written by Thea Devine that released July, 1995. So when is "Secret Pleasures" set?
It takes place in the year:
We know this because almost halfway through the book when Lady Genelle Tisne is following the lawyer Mr. Morfit, the narrator tells us, "he navigated his way from Park Lane over to Regent Street." and very soon after "he paused in front of the Cafe Royale", and the real-world hot spot Café Royale opened on Regent Street, London in 1865 AD. So it must be after 1865 AD.
1895 AD
We know this because almost halfway through the book when Lady Genelle Tisne is following the lawyer Mr. Morfit, the narrator tells us, "he navigated his way from Park Lane over to Regent Street." and very soon after "he paused in front of the Cafe Royale", and the real-world hot spot Café Royale opened on Regent Street, London in 1865 AD. So it must be after 1865 AD.
Also, near the end of the story, "She was panting now, running down the block and toward the Whitehall and St. Mary’s Church." St. Mary's had been a chapel and then a church but it was destroyed by German air bombing on December 29th, 1940 AD during World War II and then fully demolished in 1952 AD in the real world. So it must be before 1952 AD.
More specifically, when Lady Tisne reads in a "Gazeteer" front-page article: "Roak came on the scene some six years ago when he provided the Yard with the solution to the knotty problem of The Lydgate Truffle, a case of poisoning that had baffled the police." and then soon after, when she is reading as many articles as she can on Frederick Rulan Roak, the narrator explains: "And then—nothing. Nothing until the spring of 1889 when suddenly the paper was full of the story of the Lydgate Truffle and the miraculous solution devised by one Rulan Roak."
1889 + ~6 = ~1895.
Furthermore, on the first page right under the heading that lets us know it’s a "Prologue", there is a time and place setting subheading reading: "London, 1895".
