📖 Blog Tour ~ The Bloodless Boy by Robert J. Lloyd

 

Melville House Publishing
2 November 2021

harry Hunt adventures #1

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book
and to Nikki at MPH Books for the invitation to the blog tour

The City of London, 1678. New Year’s Day. 

Twelve years have passed since the Great Fire ripped through the City. Eighteen since the fall of Oliver Cromwell and the restoration of a King. London is gripped by hysteria, and rumours of Catholic plots and foreign assassins abound.

When the body of a young boy drained of his blood is discovered on the snowy bank of the Fleet River, Robert Hooke, the Curator of Experiments at the just-formed Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge, and his assistant Harry Hunt, are called in to explain such a ghastly finding—and whether it’s part of a plot against the king. They soon learn it is not the first bloodless boy to have been discovered. 

Wary of the political hornet’s nest they are walking into—and using scientific evidence rather than paranoia in their pursuit of truth— Hooke and Hunt must discover why the boy was murdered, and why his blood was taken. 

📖 My Thoughts..

There are suspicious circumstances when the body of a young boy is found on the banks of the Fleet River on New Years Day in 1678. This discovery proves something of a challenge for Robert Hooke, the Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge, and his assistant Harry Hunt, for not only is it a distressing sight to welcome in the New Year but also the macabre aspects of the boy's death is something of a conundrum. This fascinating duo set about the challenge of discovery by using what they know about science, however, their knowledge will lead them into dangerous political territory.

The authenticity of Restoration England comes alive with fascinating insight into the way London is developing after the devastation caused by The Great Fire some twelve years before the story opens. The deadly intrigue which surrounds the pursuit of science and the distrust and suspicion which seems to follow anyone who doesn't conform is described in intricate detail and I have especially enjoyed following Hooke and Hunt as they seek to make sense of an investigation which seems to thwart them at every level.

I found The Bloodless Boy to be an intriguing historical adventure with a good sense of pace and and a well thought out mystery which has all the elements of surprise, intrigue and danger. However, it is the author's style of writing which excels in this beautifully written historical novel and in perfectly blending fiction, with known facts, a story of political intrigue, science and religion comes alive in the imagination.

About the Author

Robert J. Lloyd grew up in South London, Innsbruck, and Kinshasa (his parents worked in the British Foreign Service), and then in Sheffield, where he studied for a Fine Art degree, starting as a landscape painter but moving to film, performance, and installation. His MA thesis on Robert Hooke and the ‘New Philosophy’, inspired the ideas and characters in The Bloodless Boy. He lives in Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons. This is his first book.

Twitter @robjlloyd #TheBloodlessBoy

@melvillehouse