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Book Review of The Hellfire Conspiracy (Barker & Llewelyn, Bk 4)

The Hellfire Conspiracy (Barker & Llewelyn, Bk 4)
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This is Book 4 of the Barker & Llewelyn mystery series.

Will Thomas has produced another believable Victorian-era mystery with realistic characters. I enjoyed the story well enough, but I don't think that it matched the overall quality of his last book, The Limehouse Text.

In every book, Thomas has taken actual (and often relatively obscure) social and historical events from 19th century London and made them key elements of the plot. This book was no exception, but in this case I felt like he tried to do too much. The plot was a rather messy combination of serial killings reminiscent of Jack the Ripper (complete with taunting "catch me if you can" letters), social debates surrounding the issue of white slavery, and a brief resurgence of the 18th century's Hellfire Club.

Even though it was not as well written as previous books, The HellFire Conspiracy was still well worth reading. Most of the book just meanders along, only to run full steam into a rather sudden conclusion. After reading a series that was getting better with every book, I will allow Thomas a pass on this slightly less-polished offering. With that said, it is still a good book in a great series. Like the ones before, I still highly recommend it.