Season of Death (A Barker & Llewelyn, Book 16)
Move over, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins! Will Thomas’s novel dramatizes the late Victorian underworld with the adventures of Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn, private inquiry agents.
These detectives make an unusual duo. Barker made a fortune from shipping in his past and now uses some of his wealth to help less fortunate individuals. He is also a master of Asian martial arts, which he teaches his younger partner. Llewelyn, who narrates the novel, says he is a product of Oxford University and Oxford prison. He is a sharp observer with a pungent sense of humor.
The plot starts with a well-used trope—a missing American heiress who is expected to be married off to a British nobleman who needs money to maintain his status. The agents are expected to quietly find her and return her to her family—and her fate. What follows is one lively episode after another developed with interesting and lively minor characters like Mrs. Maud Kemple, a witty adventuress who scandalizes proper society but who has an acquaintance with the Prince of Wales. The action is placed in 1895 London, which is rendered with captivating historical notes and charming local color descriptions, such as the street gangs, mission houses for women, and the episode of the Fall of Calcutta, a sinkhole that occurs when an abandoned railway tunnel collapses and reveals a criminal underworld.
The novel gets a tad melodramatic in places, but then again, that never stopped Dickens or Collins! This is an excellent read.
