At the request of Her Majesty's government, private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker agrees to take on his least favorite kind of assignment—he's to provide security for a secret conference with the French government. The conference is to take place on the private estate of Lord Hargrave on a remote island off the coast of Cornwall. The goal of the conference is the negotiation of a new treaty with France. The cover story for the gathering is a house party—an attempt to introduce Lord Hargrave's two unmarried sons to potential mates. But shortly after the parties land at the island, Lord Hargrave is killed by a sniper shot, and the French ambassador's head of security is found stabbed to death. The only means of egress from the island—a boat—has been sent away, and the means of signaling for help has been destroyed. Trapped in a manor house with no way of escape, Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, must uncover which among them is the...

An atmospheric debut novel set on the gritty streets of Victorian London, Some Danger Involved introduces detective Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, as they work to solve the gruesome murder of a young scholar in London's Jewish ghetto. When the eccentric and enigmatic Barker takes the case, he must hire an assistant, and out of all who answer an ad for a position with "some danger involved," he chooses downtrodden Llewelyn, a gutsy young man with a murky past.As they inch ever closer to the shocking truth behind the murder, Llewelyn is drawn deeper and deeper into Barker's peculiar world of vigilante detective work, as well as the heart of London's teeming underworld. Brimming with wit and unforgettable characters and steeped in authentic period detail, Some Danger Involved is a captivating page-turner that introduces an equally captivating duo.

An original never-before-seen Barker and Llewelyn short story: includes 8 FREE CHAPTERS of OLD SCORES, the next installment in the adventures of Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn.Cyrus Barker, the most prominent and accomplished private enquiry agent in 19th century London, faces what might be the most dastardly crime of his career: his personal tobacconist has been murdered, his body found in his own humidor!Now Cyrus Barker, with the help of his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, must crisscross London in order to track the killer. As they follow the clues, Barker discovers that the victim, Vasilios Dimitriadis, was not a man worthy of Barker's trust. Can the Guv find whoever killed the skilled tobacco blender? While he is at it, can he find the secret formula Dimitriadis used to make his beloved tobacco blend?