The Black Hand: A Barker & Llewelyn Novel
In this fifth adventure for Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn, the Victorian detecting duo pulls out all the stops to squelch an Italian incursion into local organized crime. Characters worthy of Dickens’ London cross paths with mafiosi as creatively brutal as Mario Puzo’s Corleones. The secretive Barker, with his dark glasses, squat dog, and Buddhist leanings, is pushed to his psychological limit when he is called to the scene of a particularly gruesome murder and is later threatened with a “black hand” note and physical attacks on his household. Challenging cases are Barker’s forte, but sorting out gangland vendettas tips the balance toward a less-than-legal solution. Despite the unrelenting violence and burgeoning paranoia, Llewelyn’s first-person narrative infuses the story with his trademark humor—wry, self-deprecating, and sometimes macabre (think Madame LaFarge’s knitting). After a particularly personal attack, Barker lands on a unique solution to rid the East End of the unwelcome Sicilians. In an underground meeting readers won’t soon forget, the pugnacious Barker foments a gang war guaranteed to leave fans with clenched fists. --Jen Baker