Amy B. (BaileysBooks) reviewed on 11/16/2011 + 491 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This is Book 1 of the Barker & Llewelyn mystery series.

I am always reluctant to read books by authors who try to add to the Sherlock Holmes canon. But then there are books like Some Danger Involved. Will Thomas obviously built his characters on the Holmes-Watson foundation, but he managed to make them unique and engaging enough that they stand on their own merit, outside of the looming shadows of their predecessors.

Cyrus Barker's past is delightfully mysterious and his significant eccentricities give him depth. (What IS behind those black spectacles, after all?) While still reserved, he is slightly less cold than Holmes, more physical, and a little rough around the edges. He was born a Scot, lived on the streets of China as a youth, spent time at sea as the captain of a ship, and is covered in tattoos. Thomas Llewelyn is a bumbling but endearing sidekick with a more unfortunate past than Doctor Watson could ever claim, as his resume includes an 8 month sentence in an Oxford prison. He also has a good sense of humor.

Being the first book of the series, some of the mystery elements take a back seat to allow for the initial character development, but overall I have no complaints. Llewelyn narrates for Barker as Watson does for Holmes, and the reader is left as clueless as the narrator until Barker reveals the specifics of the case at the very end. This has all the makings of a promising new series and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

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