I have signed up for a second year of The Alphabet in Crime Fiction, a community meme sponsored by Mysteries in Paradise.
Each week she'll be expecting participants to produce a post featuring a
mystery/crime novel or novelist related to that week's letter.
My choice for the letter T is Will Thomas. Thomas is an author that I look forward to trying before the year is out. I have his first novel, Some Danger Involved, down for a couple of challenges which means I ought to get it read by the end of December. Thomas is an author whose series is set in the Victorian era and which stars Cyrus Barker, a Scottish detective (aka "private enquiry agent") and his assistant Thomas Llewelyn. His novels tend to make use of historical events and people and Thomas has said that Barker is based on such men as Richard Francis Burton and Edward William Barton-Wright. Before the publication of his first novel, Thomas was the author of essays on Sherlock Holmes and gave lectures on Victorian crime fiction.
Some Danger Involved was nominated for both a Barry Award and a Shamus Award, and was the winner of the 2005 Oklahoma book Award. This novel is an atmospheric debut "set on the gritty streets of Victorian
London, Some Danger Involved introduces detective Cyrus Barker and his
assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, as they work to solve the gruesome murder of
a young scholar in London's Jewish ghetto. When the eccentric and
enigmatic Barker takes the case, he must hire an assistant, and out of
all who answer an ad for a position with 'some danger involved,' he
chooses downtrodden Llewelyn, a gutsy young man with a murky past. As they inch ever closer to the shocking truth behind the murder,
Llewelyn is drawn deeper and deeper into Barker's peculiar world of
vigilante detective work, as well as the heart of London's teeming
underworld. Brimming with wit and unforgettable characters and steeped
in authentic period detail, Some Danger Involved is a captivating page-turner that introduces an equally captivating duo."[(sources: Wikipedia, Goodreads, Amazon book synopsis, and the Will Thomas site--link above]
3 comments:
I have this book but have not read it. You will probably get to it before me, and I will be interested in seeing how you like it.
I always wonder how true to the age a historical book is. I mean, I can't tell much about the age since I don't have more than a passing knowledge what it was like. On the other hand, if the story is well done, I don't think I'll care. Makes me wonder how historians deal with such books. Do they shake their head in despair because the author took far too many literary liberties? :)
Bev - Interesting choice! Historical mysteries that really give the reader an interesting look at a particular era can be as compelling on that point as they are in terms of the mystery. I'll have to take a peek at this one.
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