Some Danger Involved is written by Will Thomas and published in 2004 by Touchstone.

Have you ever wanted an alternative to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Stories?

This book is it!

The series is set in the Victorian England era, and 1880s London is brought to life. We are introduced to our two protagonists: Cyrus Barker, a Scotsman, with a very interesting past, and his soon to be assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, who is down on his luck and has done some jail time.

He lands the “Watson” position by answering an advertisement in a paper which has the phrase “Some Danger Involved”. Thomas gets the job. We also meet Mac, who has many different hats that he wears while in the employ of Barker.

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A Polish-Jewish young scholar is found crucified in the Jewish quarter of London who bears a striking resemblance to artist’s rendering of the Christ in the Bible. Barker takes the case. As the case progresses, danger is definitely involved. Along the way, we meet a host of other characters that Cyrus Barker has some sort of connection.

Some Danger Involved is an extremely well-paced detective novel. It is the debut novel of Will Thomas who lives in Broken Arrow, OK. Kudos to Will Thomas for breathing original new life into the detective novel genre.

The cast of characters that, especially those that have connection to Barker, are fleshed out through the series. The Cyrus Barker character is one of the most interesting and multi-faceted character I have read about in recent years. He is even a Baptist and attends the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle where Spurgeon is the pastor. There are so many layers to him, that I am still learning things about him as the series progresses which to me is the sign of good writing and good character building.

The same goes for the Thomas Llewelyn character. His jail is due to theft and assault, and this only takes place after the death of his wife Jenny. (Spoiler) Needless to say, he doesn’t do that again, when he Enquiry Agent Cyrus Barker. I am invested in these characters now after the 14 books that I have read. I happened upon this book in August 2019 and took a chance. I was at first leery, because it is a period piece detective novel and they tend to be somewhat slow, but Some Danger Involved was anything, but slow. The title is what lured me into checking out the
book.

What makes the book series even more engaging, it is told in the first-person perspective of Thomas Llewelyn, similar to that of the Sherlock stories being told from the perspective of Watson, also in the first person.
The reading level of the book should be above the age of 13.

 

• Violence: plenty, the title itself should give it away, a man is crucified in the beginning chapters

         of the book and it is somewhat graphic

• Profanity: very mild and hardly any

• Sex: none

• Drugs and alcohol: some / Barker and Llewelyn visit an opiate den in the East End

• Morality: the characters grow in trust for each other in the beginning stages of their partnership / using Scripture to justify murder is frowned upon.

Barker employs questionable tactics to solve the case, but all in all he needs a partner to assist him, and Llewelyn is that man. Go read this book if you like period piece detective novels.

 

Reviews of the entire series will be coming soon!

The Professor’s Commentary

Barker attends the Baptist Church in the area; he may be Baptist in name only. There are a lot of people in the world that are whatever religion in name only and not truly a follower. There are people that claim to be Christian, but their life does not show that they are a Christian biblically.

What category do you find yourself in? Matthew 7:20 “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know
them.”