Fierce Poison, a stylish and entertaining homage to the stories of Sherlock Holmes, is the 13th novel in the Barker & Llewelyn series from author Will Thomas (Dance with Death). Set in London in 1893, the novel follows Thomas's tradition of mixing the cerebral with action through well-defined characters, and featuring private inquiry agent Cyrus Barker--well-versed in myriad self-defense techniques, gleaned from his global experiences--and the scholarly Thomas Llewelyn, once unjustly imprisoned.
The brain-and-brawn approach works well in Fierce Poison, in which Barker and Llewelyn track a murderer with a high body count. Roland Fitzhugh, a respected member of Parliament, bursts into the detectives' office, asks for water and then dies before taking a sip. They soon learn that, less than an hour before his death, Fitzhugh had complained to Scotland Yard that someone had been trying to poison him. In an attempt to find out if Fitzhugh really was poisoned, the detectives gain a client: Prime Minister William Gladstone, who insists he will pay the detectives to find out what happened. Their investigation barely begins when an East End family is also poisoned. The link seems to be raspberry tarts, which a street vendor had given to one of the children.
Thomas keeps the suspense high as the brisk plot reaches a believable finale, making the most of the friendship between Barker and Llewelyn and their mutual respect. A hint at Barker's mysterious past adds flavor to Fierce Poison. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer