Will Thomas Books In Order

Publication Order of Barker & Llewelyn Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Will Thomas is one of the most well-established authors in the United States, who is popularly known for penning down novels that are based on the thriller and historical genres. Thomas came into popularity with the Barker and Llewellyn thriller book series. Before he became a full-time author, Thomas used to pen down essays specifically for Sherlock Holmes publications society. Furthermore, Will Thomas was also actively involved in the giving out of lectures revolving around the study of the Victorian era. Will Thomas has also served as a librarian, at the Tulsa City County Library System. Thomas also got a chance to be featured on the front page of the trade publication of the Library Journal. Apart from being an author, Will Thomas also has interests in various martial art forms including Hung Gar and Bartitsu. Thomas has mastered these two forms of Victorian Martial arts. He also uses them in his novels.

Currently, Thomas resides in Oklahoma with his family. Will Thomas became a full-time author in the year 2004, with his debut novel being Some Danger Involved. Since then, Will Thomas has continued to publish regularly various thriller novels throughout his writing career. Thomas is famously known for creating the character Thomas Llewellyn and Cyrus Barker. Thomas and Cyrus are regularly featured in many of his best-performing novels. Will Thomas describe Cyrus as a detective who hails from Scotland and prefers to be referred as an agent of private inquiry? Thomas is then introduced to the readers as Cyrus’s assistant. The mystery series has been set in the 1800’s. The narratives, on the other hand, are filled with various historical details that feature movements, people as well as events from that specific period. Martial combat is a recurring theme throughout the novel.

In a majority of the interviews that the author has conducted, Will Thomas has indicated that prominent men such as Richard Francis Barton and Edward Barton Wright inspire the protagonist, Barker. Because Edward Barton Wright is the founder of Bartitsu martial arts, many believe he is the main inspiration behind the character, Cyrus Barker. Thomas’s debut novel received numerous nominations, such as Barry and Shamus Awards. The book also received the Book Award of Oklahoma in 2005. The Black Hard, another book by Will Thomas was also nominated for the prestigious Shamus Award in the year 2009. In the year 2015, Will Thomas was awarded the Oklahoma Award once more with the novel, Fatal Inquiry. Will Thomas is happily married to one Julia Thomas, who just like him is a well-established author. Julia Thomas is widely known for penning down the novel, The English Boys.

When writing his stories or when creating characters, Will Thomas loves to use pen and paper, a technique that allows him to get much closer to his characters. Many at times, he begins by sketching a portrait on a piece of paper and then begins to pen down a description of the character that he has drawn. Thomas has emphasized that the characters that he creates, many at times provides a medium for carrying the narrative and the plot forward. Nonetheless, social issues normally play an important role in driving his narratives. Some of the issues that Will Thomas likes to focus on include child safety, terrorism, and anti-Semitism. When Will Thomas was developing his first ever book, Thomas came across a quote that all the Jewish women who reside in the East End fear that the white slavers are going to snatch their children. Thomas got intrigued by this quote and in turn decided to develop a mystery that was based on this topic, that revolved around some of his exceedingly famous protagonists.

Will Thomas Best Books

Barker and Llewelyn Series

The Barker and Llewelyn mystery series penned down by Will Thomas is made up of 9 books and were released between the year 2004 and 2016. Kingdom Come was one of the initial books in the Barker and Llewelyn book series. Touchstone Publication released this book in the year 2005. In the initial stages of the book, Will Thomas depicted the recently implemented Scotland Yard; Special Branch had been destroyed by a bomb attack. After the attacks were executed, all the Irish dissidents who were fighting for liberation are considered to be culprits and the perpetrators of the attack. The dissidents are slapped with various charges including the execution of the bomb attacks and also because they are considered to be brazen factions of society. Barker and Llewelyn offer their services to the Irish government to mainly infiltrate the secret cell of the Irish Brotherhood known as the Invincible.

Barker pretends to be a bomb maker from Germany, while the other protagonist Llewelyn pretends to be Barker’s apprentice. The two eventually get recruited to the ultimate plan of the invisible, which is to destroy the monarchy rule of the United Kingdom by bringing down the entire city. The adventures eventually take these two protagonists to different states and cities including Wales, Liverpool, and many others.

The Limehouse Text

The Limehouse Text is one of the most interesting installments in the Barker and Llewelyn book series. Touchstone Books released the book in the year 2005. In this narrative, Barker discovered a ticket of a pawn in the effects of his late assistant. The ticket eventually leads the two protagonists to the Chinese District of London city, which is popularly known as Limehouse. Once in the Limehouse, the two come across a book that contains rare texts as well as secrets that were stolen from one of the monasteries in Nanking. Barker and Llewelyn eventually come to learn that the scripts contained some form of martial arts that were forbidden by the Western people. Because situation between English Empire and Imperial China is already on the rocks, the two are given the task of tracking down the exceedingly deadly killer who is more than determined to acquire the secrets of the book.

Once again, the author WILL Thomas has taken the readers on an remarkably adventurous journey, through the exceedingly deadly London Streets, where Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn will try to prowl through the underworld of opium dens, blood sports as well as penny hangs for the sailors.

Will Thomas is one of the well known novelists from the U.S, who is famous for writing novels based on the historical mystery and thriller genres. He is particularly well known for writing the Barker & Llewelyn book series. Before the start of his writing career, author Thomas used to write essays for the society publications of Sherlock Holmes. He was also involved in giving lectures on the crime fiction of the Victorian era. Author Thomas has even worked as a librarian at the Library System of the Tulsa City-County. He even got the chance to feature on the cover page of the Library Journal’s trade publication. In addition to being a noteworthy author, he has interests in learning the martial art forms of the Victorian times, Hung Gar and Bartitsu. Thomas has studied these martial arts techniques and uses them quite frequently in his novels. Currently, he resides in Oklahoma along with his family. Thomas began his writing career in the year 2004 with the publication of his debut book titled Some Danger Involved. Since then, he has regularly written and published thriller novels in his career. Author Thomas was born in the year 1958 in the Bucks County, Pennsylvania, U.S. He is famous for creating the characters of Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn. These two characters feature very often in his noteworthy mystery series. Thomas has described Cyrus Barker as a detective from Scotland, who prefers to be called as more of an agent of private inquiry. Thomas Llewelyn is introduced by him as Cyrus Barker’s Welsh assistant. Thomas has set the mystery series during the time of the 1800s. The stories are often filled with historical details, featuring people, movements, and events from that time period.

A recurring theme throughout the plots is martial combat. In many of his interviews, author Thomas has stated that the character Barker is inspired from some prominent men like Edward Barton-Wright and Richard Francis Burton. Edward is the main inspiration behind the character as he is the founder of the martial art of Bartitsu, which is of interest to Thomas as well. The debut novel written by author Thomas received nominations for the prestigious awards like Shamus and Barry Awards. It even won the Book Award of Oklahoma in the year 2005. One of his other books titled ‘The Black Hard’ was also nominated for the Shamus Award in 2009. In 2015, Thomas won the Oklahoma Award once again for his novel Fatal Enquiry. Author Thomas says that he is an ardent fan of author Rex Strout, the writer of the popular Nero Wolfe novel series. Thomas happily is married to another named named Julia Thomas. She is famous for writing ‘The English Boys’. Author Thomas maintains that he likes to use pen and paper for writing his stories and books and they help him to get bound closer to his characters. Very often, he creates a character sketch in the paper margin and then begins to pen the word portrait. He also says that the characters that he develops in his books provide a good medium to carry the plots forward. However, the social issues play a more important role in driving his stories. Some of the issues that Thomas likes to focus on include anti-Semitism, child safety, and terrorism. When author Thomas was working on the development of his first book, he came across a quote which described that every mother in the Jewish community of East End fear that the white slavers will snatch their children. He got intrigued by this and decided to develop a mystery based on this topic, revolving around his typically famous characters.

The Barker & Llewelyn series written by Will Thomas is comprised of 9 books in total, which were released between the years 2004 and 2016. One of the initial books released in this series is entitled ‘To Kingdom Come’. The Touchstone publication released it in the year 2005. At the start of this book, author Thomas has depicted that the recently built Special Branch of the Irish Scotland Yard has gotten destroyed due to a bomb attack. Following the attack, every points to the Irish dissidents fighting for liberation from the English rule as the culprits. They face the charges of the attack because they are considered brazen factions of the society. Llewelyn and Barker offer their services to the government to infiltrate the Irish Brotherhood’s secret cell known by the name Invisibles. Barker poses as a bomb maker from Germany and Llewelyn joins him as his apprentice. They get recruited to the ultimate plan of the group, that is to destroy the monarchy rule in London by destroying the city. The adventures take the two men to various places like Wales, Liverpool, etc. Eventually, Llewelyn begins working undercover with one of the Irish radicals’ sister named Maire O’Casey. And when he is tested by his employer, Llewelyn learns the self defense in a hard way. He even receives training in bomb making from the radicals. While doing all this, he and Barker draw a plan to stop the them from destroying London and pretty much succeed in doing so.

One more interesting book released in this series is known as ‘The Limehouse Text’. It was once again released by the Touchstone Books in 2006. In this story, Barker is shown discovering a ticket of pawn among his late assistant’s effects. It leads him and Llewelyn to the Chinese district of London, known as Limehouse. They come across a simple looking book in Limehouse that seems to contain some secret and rare texts which were stolen from a monastery of Nanking. They come to know later that the book contains the techniques of lethal forms of martial arts that seems forbidden for the Western people. As the situation is already unstable between Imperial China and the English Empire, Barker and his assistant are required to track down a deadly killer who intends to acquire the secret knowledge in the book. The duo also need to prevent the book from reaching into the wrong hands who are suspected to have conflicting interests. Once again, author Thomas has tried to take the readers on an adventurous journey through the deadly streets of London, where Thomas Llewelyn and Cyrus Barker try to prowl through the underworld of blood sports, opium dens, and the penny hangs of the sailors. The book entertained one and all, and was eventually became successful. The critics reviewed it with many positive reviews and also praised Thomas for his unique style of writing.

2 Responses to “Will Thomas”

1. Mervyn Denyer: 2 years ago

   When I read the first book, I was convinced that the author must be English, I was unable to find any mistakes in the language or locations used in the book, and subsequent books. I was surprised to find that Mr Thomas was American, and full of admiration for both the research that must have gone into the books and to the perfect English writing and vocabulary. I have read all the books excluding the latest and have enjoyed every one. Well done, and many thanks for your books, I love them all.

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2. Bill Hobbs: 3 years ago

   I’ve just ordered “Dance with Death” and am looking forward to it. I have particularly enjoyed this series (being a flaming Anglophile, having spent a LOT of time in England and now retired to the atmosphere of East Texas (not the same, in any contest, as London or any place in Europe),so your books, even set in the 1800s, are fun recollections. I’ve read all of this series and actually posted Amazon reviews of them. I am impressed with your knowledge of London/England.

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