{"id":1116,"date":"2009-05-07T20:32:59","date_gmt":"2009-05-08T01:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:09:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T13:09:02","slug":"the-hellfire-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1116","title":{"rendered":"The Hellfire Conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hellfire Conspiracy<\/a><\/em> (2007) Will Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,33,8,291,43,934],"tags":[396,557,395],"class_list":["post-1116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-historical","category-mystery","category-paper","category-private-eye","category-trigger-warnings","tag-barker-llewelyn","tag-victorian","tag-will-thomas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-i0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1085,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1085","url_meta":{"origin":1116,"position":0},"title":"The Limehouse Text","author":"Michelle","date":"April 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Limehouse Text (2006) Will Thomas The book starts with Barker getting ready for a fight--a fight that is entirely Llewelyn's fault. As with the last book, we then go back to see how Llewelyn got himself (and Barker) into that fix. (Everything isn't Llwelyn's fault, they are investigating the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Limehouse-Text-e1510879960825.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1366,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1366","url_meta":{"origin":1116,"position":1},"title":"The Black Hand","author":"Michelle","date":"September 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Black Hand (2008) Will Thomas Barker is called down to the docks, where a barrel containing a dead Italian had been pulled from the river. This single body draws Barker and Llewelyn into a case involving an attempt by the Sicilian mafia to start in London--something Barker, Scotland Yard,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Black-Hand.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9507,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9507","url_meta":{"origin":1116,"position":2},"title":"The Hellfire Conspiracy","author":"Michelle","date":"December 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Hellfire Conspiracy (2007) Will Thomas Set in London in 1885. Barker and Llewellyn are pulled into a case possibly involving the white slave trade--the sale of girls into prostitution. I\u2019d seen women in the East End, pursuing their occupation boldly in the light of day, but it had never\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/Hellfire-Conspiracy-e1511016008802.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":965,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/965","url_meta":{"origin":1116,"position":3},"title":"Some Danger Involved","author":"Michelle","date":"February 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Some Danger Involved (2004) Will Thomas Thomas Llewelyn is at the end of his rope. He's spent time in prison, his wife is dead, and he cannot find a job--all but a death sentence in Victorian London. So he eventually applies for the position as assistant to the private inquiry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/Some-Danger-Involved.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1005,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1005","url_meta":{"origin":1116,"position":4},"title":"To Kingdom Come","author":"Michelle","date":"March 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"To Kingdom Come (2005) Will Thomas The sequel to Some Danger Involved find Barker and Llewelyn involved in a case involving the IRB. Fearing that Scotland Yard and the Home Office will be unable to solve the problem, Barker proposes that he and Llewelyn go undercover and attempt to help\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/Kindgom-Come.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9558,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9558","url_meta":{"origin":1116,"position":5},"title":"The Black Hand","author":"Michelle","date":"January 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Black Hand (2008) Will Thomas The fifth Barker & Llewelyn book finds the inquiry agent and his apprentice asked to find a solution to mafia killings that have come to London. \u201cAre many of them Sicilian?\u201d \u201cSicilian?\u201d Dunham asked, as if it were a new word to his vocabulary.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Black-Hand-e1511016681562.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}