The New York Times, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly and The Times (of London) have all hailed The Bloodless Boy since its publication in 2021. With good reason.
A mystery set in 1678 London, and loosely based on actual events, the novel is a riveting mix of 17th-century English politics, the hideous murders of young children, anti-Catholic hysteria, and the use of disinformation by sinister forces hell-bent on promoting conspiracy theories. And if all that isn’t enough, this tangled web may be tied to a plot to assassinate the king.
It was a tumultuous time in England, as The Bloodless Boy makes clear with a winning blend of fact and (considerable) fiction. The English Civil War; the beheading of King Charles I in 1649; the abolition of the English monarchy; its restoration in 1660 under King Charles II, son of the murdered king; and the aftermath of the Great Fire of London in 1666 all figure in this evocative tale.
The story opens with the discovery of a dead boy, possibly as young as two, near the Fleet River. All of the blood has been drained from his body and dates have been carefully marked on his skin.
A coded message is found with the body. It is on a square piece of paper containing 12 rows and 12 columns of numbers.
The task of temporarily preserving the body, breaking the cipher and, hopefully, identifying the killer(s) falls to a real-life historical figure: polymath and scientist Robert Hooke, curator of experiments at the Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge (commonly known today as the Royal Society).
On hand to help Hooke is Harry Hunt, his young former assistant. When the bodies of additional, similarly murdered, boys turn up and Hooke tries to detach himself from the investigation, Hunt sets off largely on his own to conduct an extremely risky bit of sleuthing.
The Bloodless Boy, which runs to more than 400 pages and boasts some 40 characters, is awash in period detail and infused with an almost nightmarish intensity. The devilish deeds at the heart of the plot, Hunt's dogged search for answers and Lloyd's skillful writing make this a dark, edgy and highly satisfying novel.
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