A Tale in Two Voices: Literary and Pop

Will Thomas is a novelist specializing in Victorian mysteries about a Scottish detective in the 1880s. This Barker & Llewelyn series is his only series, of which this novel is the latest installment. The series was started back in 2004, with nearly a novel released per-year. Thomas is a librarian in the Tulsa City-County Library System.
“In late Victorian England, private enquiry agents… Cyrus Barker, along with his partner Thomas Llewelyn… find themselves in the middle of the deadly chaos when powerful forces align to take over London’s criminal underworld.” They have “a long, accomplished history—he’s worked with all aspects of society, from the highest (including the Crown and the government) to the lowest (various forces in London’s underworld).” Early in the book, there is a claim that they solved the “Jack the Ripper” murders, but “the powers-that-be had swept” it away. “I heard the decision went as high as Queen Victoria…” This one case covers the lowest and highest levels. “He’s been the target of murder attempts, character assassination, bombings and attacks upon his closest associates but never has he and his agency partner Thomas Llewelyn faced such destruction and potential disaster. The sudden collapse of a railway tunnel in the East End of London kills dozens and shuts down services all over the city.” This is described at the start of Chapter 10: “a sinkhole” was the cause of an “abandoned railway tunnel” collapse “in the wee hours”. Some of these people “fell from the houses above”, but some were “below”. The latter is strange: why would there have been anybody in an “abandoned” tunnel? This is explained in the following paragraphs, as apparently a “Mr. Soft” had invested in not only the cheap houses above, but also a “subterranean kingdom below”, which was living in that tunnel, where the “Dawn Gang” might have also hatched. “Meanwhile, a mysterious beggar calling herself ‘Dutch’ guides Barker and Llewelyn to an attempt by a powerful aristocrat to take over London’s criminal underworld.” This “Dutch” is not described up-close, and no explanation is given for her significance across the first few mentions. She “fades” away, or disappears. The trope of using a mysterious character, who is constantly missed, or searched for is not effective: it assumes readers will be interested in learning more about them, when readers might have been more interested if there were no sections describing what’s unknown without using this space to learn more of what is known… “…With a missing heiress and a riot at a women’s shelter acting as distractions designed to stop the duo from getting to the truth, Barker must relentlessly fight to reach the trust while Llewelyn wonders how a simple beggar woman can be the catalyst for such destruction.” I assume the “beggar woman” or “Dutch” will turn out to be a wealthy aristocrat (probably the “missing heiress”, who is only called by this moneyed-title, with rare mentions that she is “Miss May Evans” and an “American”, and then the claim that she is “an infamous demimondaine named Maud Kemple”, who was implicated in the “divorce proceedings over at least two aristocrats”) as a “surprise” plot-twist, but if this is always the trick writers use to show hidden power lies not in poor people’s good qualities, but rather in them being secretly rich and thus obviously powerful… It stops being a trick, and becomes a crutch.
“Chapter 1” opens with a first-person description of London and its oddities in November 1895. It is a well-executed description that invites readers to listen to this narrator: Llewelyn, the assistant investigator. The style of summarizing the social “woes” of London’s population, and the players involved echoes canonical British 19th century texts (in a good way). For example, the use of the term “Dawn Gang” is immediately explained to refer to a group that strikes “in the early hours of the morning, when most constables had sore feet and just wanted to go home for a sausage and a bun…” However, by the last third in this book, the narrative is diluted, with pages of relatively empty dialogue. There are discussions of women’s role regarding garden parties and shelters, and the “demon… Chinaman”. Though most chapters, like Chapter 23, begin with some specific verbal drawings, like of the doorkeepers at the Palace of Westminster. They see these as they are waiting for an audience with Mr. Havelock. A rather empty conversation follows, but at least it’s related to the larger plot: they debate why they were kicked out of the mansion of Lady Danvers. They theorize it might have to do with illegal workers and anarchists. Usually, most ideas, theories, and characters are consistent across this book. Strings are tied together into the larger plot: this is a unique characteristic in this set of reviews. Too many other titles jump between ideas and abstractions without continuity. Here, if the Dawn Gang is mentioned as a relevant player, it is brought in again in later stages as the truth about the causes of problems for characters is revealed. There seem to be two writerly styles in this novel. One is highbrow, literary, and inserts thorough research, and narrative continuity. Another sprinkles in relatively empty chatter or dialogue in between that waters down the overall density of this novel. This might have been a great novel, if the writer thought a bit more about eliminating unnecessary bits, and doing a bit more research on how all the different ideas fit together.
—Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Fall 2024: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-fall-2024

The Barker and Llewelyn series is a recommended read for all our historical mystery fans at the library. Unfortunately my NetGalley app gave me a series of errors when I tried to open this title to read it. When I deleted it and tried to re-send it from my Netgalley account to the app again the file will not show up. I will be buying it for our library though.

Brilliant! These books can’t come out fast enough. Another roller coaster adventure with Barker and Llewellyn. This whole series is just brilliant!!!

An abandoned railway tunnel collapses in London, killing dozens, including a large portion of gang leaders. Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn suspect this is an attempt for a rival gang to take over the underworld of crime. The enquiry agents are also hired to find a missing heiress, a wealthy American who had come to London to marry a peer of the realm, just as her sister did. Barker and Llewelyn meet a street beggar, known as Dutch, who suffers with a badly damaged leg and can only crawl from place to place. Cyrus Barker also runs a woman's shelter where he takes Dutch to try and help her recover, but she keeps disappearing from the shelter. Many men are looking for their wives who are sheltered there and a riot ensues, but is it really caused by ordinary folks or is there a sinister purpose behind it? Is this part of the plot to take over the crime world of London? Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? And how does Dutch figure into all of it? Another great read from Thomas. This is a good series with some great history of Victorian London.

I loved reading this in October as I feel the spooky month matches the mystery! I enjoyed learning about the criminal underworld in London throughout this novel. It was suspenseful and thrilling filled with danger and mystery! Would recommend this book

This series is amazing!! You can actually feel as if you are in 19th century Victorian London. Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewellyn are the next Holmes and Watson.