It's been a long while since the last entry in the "Opening Salvos" series of posts, and I may have turned myself into a pest with all the praise heaped on my two favorite mystery series, but why apologize for promoting good work? So here's the opening to Some Danger Involved, the first in the Barker & Llewllyn books by Will Thomas:
If someone had told me, those many years ago, that I would spend the bulk of my life as assistant and eventual partner to one of the most eminent detectives in London, I would have thought him a raving lunatic. It was my intention from an early age to aspire to a quiet life of letters, an Oxford donship, if possible, with the occasional slim volume privately printed every couple of years. The last thing I expected was to live with permanently barked knuckles, bruises and contusions over most of my body, and the compulsion to scan every room I entered for the exits. Life doesn't always turn out as we plan. Perhaps for some of us that is a good thing.
I recently re-read the entire series extant for the third time, and it stands up well. And that opening paragraph is a summary of, a teaser for, and barely scratches the surface of the adventures to come for young Llewellyn and "the guv". If you like historical settings, buddy stories, mysteries, or just good yarns, these are the books for you.
Though I write in a far different genre, the word skill and the story craft present in these books inspire and challenge me.
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