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Amos Lassen wrote on 03/27/2011:

It is 1930 London and Paul Lemoyne is an eighteen year old who has just moved there from the country. He begins his new life as music hall stagehand and soon discovers the seamy gay side of the city. Such is the idea of James Lear’s (“The Back Passage”) new novel, “The Palace of Varieties”.
The book is very graphic and very well written. Again Lear captures us with his ability to tell a good story. However, this time the story is lost in the sexual escapades of our main character.
Lear knows how to create characters and his Paul is a gay rent boy and sociopath who just never learns from his own mistakes and failings. He manages to ruin everything he comes into contact with in his quest for absolute sexual pleasure. He has talents and good qualities that he ignores so that he can degrade himself completely. Lacking a moral backbone and with no values, he is a plain and simple sex addict. He deserves what he gets and the reader has no sympathy for him whatsoever.
The storyline of the book is secondary to the sexual exploits of our “hero” and I use that term loosely. He is a man with no morals nor feelings and he has so much sex that he comes across as quite a depraved character that does not have any qualities worth identifying with. He is just a hedonist and it seems to me that it is a shame for an author like Lear who can write beautifully to waste so much time on sexual acts that are disgusting to a degree.
The storyline could have been developed into an interesting read if some of the sex was pushed to the side. In reality, the book is as close to pornography as possible and what a pity. I am sure there is an audience for books like this but I, myself, would have more enjoyed less sex and more story.