Fierce Poison (Barker & Llewelyn, #13) by Will Thomas Format: ebook
Source: purchased from Amazon
Formats available: hardcover, large print, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: historical fiction, historical mystery
Series: Barker & Llewelyn #13
Pages: 304
Published by Minotaur Books on April 12, 2022
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
London, 1893, there is poisoner loose in the city, with deaths piling up, and private enquiry agents Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn are apparently his next target in Fierce Poison by Will Thomas.
Private Enquiry agent Cyrus Barker has just about seen it all—he's been attacked by assassins, his office has been bombed, and evil-doers have even nearly killed his dog. But never before has a potential client dropped dead in his office. When Roland Fitzhugh, Member of Parliment arrives to consult Barker and his partner Thomas Llewelyn, he falls to the floor, dead, upon entering. As they soon learn, he's been poisoned with a cyanide laced raspberry tart, and the adulterated tarts also take out an entire family in the East End. Labelled the Mad Pie Man by the press, Barker and Llewelyn are hired by former Prime Minister William Gladstone to find out who has targeted the House of Commons's newest member.
But before they can even begin, they find themselves the latest target of this mad poisoner—with Barker's butler poisoned with digitalis and dozens of diabolic traps discovered at their home. On the run from their unseen adversary, Barker and Llewelyn must uncover the threads that connect these seemingly random acts and stop the killer before they and their closest friends and family become the latest casualties.
My Review:
A man drops dead at Cyrus Barker’s feet. That’s happened before, even occasionally because Barker has caused the death. But he’s never had it happen in his office before. Mostly because his reputation proceeds him into every room and back alley of London, and no villain who is good enough to get that close is stupid enough to try it in Barker’s own stronghold. At least not in a face-to-face confrontation.
(That’s actually important later, in more ways than seems remotely obvious at first.)
But Roland Fitzhugh, MP, did not come to Barker’s Private Enquiry Agency to kill Barker. He came for help to prevent his own murder after Scotland Yard told him he was exaggerating the threat. Little did he know that it was already too late.
Fitzhugh’s final words to Barker – to anyone at all – as he expired on the office floor – were a gasped, “Help me”. Which Barker chooses to take as his first, last and only instruction from a client who will be unable to pay his bill. A fact which doesn’t matter to Barker, as he feels duty bound to solve the murder.
Even though Barker’s assumption of that duty puts himself, his business partner and chronicler, Thomas Llewelyn, and all that either of them holds dear – including their own lives – into the crosshairs of a serial killer that the newssheets dub “The Mad Pie Man”. A killer who is willing to poison an entire family – and Barker’s entire household – to protect the secret of his identity until his mad murder spree is done.
Escape Rating A: Last week ended on a ‘flail and bail’, which is the point where I turn to comfort reads to get back into the swing of reading and reviewing. The Barker & Llewelyn series has been at the top of my comfort reads list since I dove into the first book, Some Danger Involved, back in 2023 in the throes of a similar situation. Series like this one are perfect for me – whether every single book in the series is or not – because they’re all good at least and usually quite a bit more. The worlds are fully fleshed out, often because there is plenty of material to build upon. What I particularly love about mysteries – as differentiated from thrillers – is that they are all about the disruption of order and more, well, comfortingly, its restoration. Good triumphs, and evil gets its just desserts. Maybe not quite as much as I’d like sometimes, but enough to be satisfying. AND to get me out of my reading slump.
The mystery in this one is filled with poisoned red herrings. At first it seems as if Fitzhugh was killed by chance – one poisoned pie piece on a sample tray that others picked from unscathed. But Barker never believes the easy answer, so when the entire family of the boy giving out free pie samples is poisoned that night – with an entirely different poison – Barker knows this case is more than it seems.
Also deeper and more diabolical than the fictional Sweeney Todd story that it resembles.
Even as the ‘Mad Pie Man” steps up his mad campaign against Barker and Llewelyn, invading their house, poisoning both the butler and the dog and leaving traps in every corner and cubbyhole, Barker & Llewelyn are scrambling to discover what the case if about in the first place.
It’s become obvious that Fitzhugh was the original target, and everything else is just covering tracks, but why? Fitzhugh was both a Member of Parliament and a lawyer, so there are plenty of possible motives for his death. Perhaps too many.
So the traps close in, Barker and Llewelyn painstakingly sifting through Fitzhugh’s actions and cases, while the Pie Man escalates his attempts to take them out before they uncover his secrets. It’s a cat and mouse game where both sides think they are the cat – and both sides have deadly claws. The Pie Man has already drawn first blood – but Barker & Llewelyn are more determined to protect themselves – and all their own.
The case was fascinating because, in the end, justice was served by someone to whom justice had once been denied. And because once the truth was revealed, everyone recognized that his cause was just even though his methods were reprehensible. And it’s a case that went on longer than it might have – but still compellingly so – because the killer was close and hiding in plain sight behind Barker’s and Llewelyn’s own assumptions – just as the victim once did.
Ultimately, this was another fascinating and successful case, wrapped up in Llewelyn’s concerns about the future of the Agency, even at the point where he’s not certain either of them has one. The result of those concerns should provide yet more interesting twists and turns in future entries in the series.
Next up is Heart of the Nile, which may not go all the way to the actual Nile, but still sounds fascinating. It looks like the case will plumb the depths of the British Museum and dig deep into the heart of, not the Nile, but the heart of (perhaps) Cleopatra’s mummy. My reading heart is already beating faster with anticipation!
