The Hellfire Conspiracy

The Hellfire Conspiracy (2007) Will Thomas

Barker and Llewelyn are pulled into an ugly case–girls are going missing and then later turning up violated and dead. There seems to be a connection–however tenuous–to Charity Organization Society.

Once again Llewelyn falls in love, and once again he gets beat up–although this time it’s truly his own fault, not Barker’s.

I’m conflicted about this book. I tore through the story wanting to know what happened, but once I finished it had a hard time figuring out what I enjoyed about the story. The abuse and murder of girls is always difficult to read about, but he didn’t dwell overly on the deaths and violations, and used the Victorian terms, which took some of the horror of the events. However, I didn’t get that Llewelyn or Barker actually felt anything about the horror happening to the girls, or the wrongness of the group of Lords trying to keep the age of consent at 13 and not 16. I should have been outraged, but instead these things passed through my brain without making much of an impression.

I’m also frustrated by Llewelyn’s constantly falling in love and it all going wrong somehow. Not that it seems out of character for him particularly, but it’s a little annoying that every case we read has him falling for a pretty face. There’s nothing specific I can point out, it’s just … annoying.

Perhaps it’s just me, and I wasn’t in the mood to read this book right now. Like I said, I read it quickly and wanted to know what happened. It’s just that once I finished I felt vaguely dissatisfied for no reason I can find. It’s not going to stop me from reading the next book in the series, but I’m also not going to rush to read the next book in the series.
Rating: 7/10

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