Hell Bay by Will Thomas is book 8 in the Barker and Llewelyn series and though well written does little to advance the series.

Cyrus Barker is cajoled into taking an assignment by Her Majesty's government, but at the same time he knows that it is also a ploy by his current love interest to have him introduced to her friends in hopes of having him make the next steps forward in their relationship. Lord Hargrave asks Barker to act as his security while he negotiates a new treaty with his counterpart from France. The conference is to take place in secret upon Hargrave's secluded island estate, while a party is going on so no one would suspect the negotiations are happening.

But when two people are murdered, Barker now knows he must find the killer before there are anymore deaths. But matters become complicated when they find that they are in fact marooned on the island and with no one to reach out to, Barker must protect the guests and find the killer on his own.

Barker and Llewelyn are a good pair. Barker the Enquiry agent and Llewelyn his younger apprentice. But as we have reached the eighth book in the series, their banter and manner has become old and with the lack of a truly intriguing plot, the book itself moves at a sluggish pace. Granted the clues are unvieled well and there is a twist in the end, but overall there is so little to distinguish this book from others of its kind or from any other in the series itself.

Good but with other better tales out there, should be passed by.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

At the request of Her Majesty’s government, private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker agrees to take on his least favorite kind of assignment—he’s to provide security for a secret conference with the French government. The conference is to take place on the private estate of Lord Hargrave on a remote island off the coast of Cornwall. The goal of the conference is the negotiation of a new treaty with France. The cover story for the gathering is a house party—an attempt to introduce Lord Hargrave’s two unmarried sons to potential mates.
But shortly after the parties land at the island, Lord Hargrave is killed by a sniper shot, and the French ambassador’s head of security is found stabbed to death. The only means of egress from the island—a boat—has been sent away, and the means of signaling for help has been destroyed. Trapped in a manor house with no way of escape, Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, must uncover which among them is the killer before the next victim falls.

Well, bummer - I thought this was going to be a ripper of a novel - the prologue certainly set it up to be like that - but it just ended up being a poor mish-mash of Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. A mystery set in a remote location with people getting routinely bumped off...and two "great detectives" solve the case. Apart from being written like a British mystery, it didn't really do anything for me at all...


Paul
ARH