{"id":1366,"date":"2009-09-21T20:56:17","date_gmt":"2009-09-22T01:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2021-12-15T21:52:53","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T02:52:53","slug":"the-black-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1366","title":{"rendered":"The Black Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Black Hand<\/a><\/em> (2008) Will Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>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, and the Home Office want desperately not to happen.<\/p>\n

As usual, the book begins with Llewelyn in danger–this time in a knife fight in the dark. I think I’ve come to actually like this introduction. You know Llewelyn isn’t going to die in the story–since he’s narrating the story–and it draws you in as you wonder who he will move from a dead body on the docks to a knife fight in an estate conservatory.<\/p>\n

We continue to see Llewelyn mature, and although he’s still saucy, he’s no longer making the stupid mistakes he did in earlier books (which is a nice change). Although Barker is as secretive as ever, we see him slowly letting Llewelyn see more pieces of his life. This time we get a glance at his seafaring past, and also (finally) we meet The Widow, who has piqued Llewelyn’s interest from the start.<\/p>\n

I actually quite liked The Widow. She’s everything you’d expect of a man like Baker, which is good. Though feisty Victorian\/Regency women always make me a bit nervous, since if they had existed in reality in the numbers they exist in literature, the world would be a far different place than it is.<\/p>\n

The mystery was interesting, and although I caught one part of it immediately, I thought perhaps the second big reveal was perhaps a bit far fetched. But it wasn’t bad, and it kept my attention.<\/p>\n

If you have not read a previous book in the Barker & Llewelyn series, you should be able to read The Black Hand<\/em> without any difficulty. However, one of the better parts of the book was realizing how Llewelyn has matured over the course of the series, so you’ll be missing out on that, though his past is alluded to. (Which in theory might ruin the first book for you, if you were interested in going back and starting there.)
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, and the Home Office want […]<\/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],"tags":[396,557,395],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-historical","category-mystery","category-paper","category-private-eye","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-m2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1085,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1085","url_meta":{"origin":1366,"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":1005,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1005","url_meta":{"origin":1366,"position":1},"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":1116,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1116","url_meta":{"origin":1366,"position":2},"title":"The Hellfire Conspiracy","author":"Michelle","date":"May 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":965,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/965","url_meta":{"origin":1366,"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":9558,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9558","url_meta":{"origin":1366,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":9171,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9171","url_meta":{"origin":1366,"position":5},"title":"Some Danger Involved","author":"Michelle","date":"July 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Some Danger Involved (2004) Will Thomas Set in London in 1884. I believe I started with series when Grandmom was living with us--both of us loved it for certain. Thomas Llewelyn is a young Welshman who is at the end of his rope. He was kicked out of Oxford, spent\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\/02\/Some-Danger-Involved.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\/1366","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=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}