The Bloodless Boy by Robert J. Lloyd

Melville House, 416 pages, $29.99

Want a little story with your history lesson? Want a lot of history with your story? “The Bloodless Boy,” by Robert J. Lloyd, provides a gruesome tale to wrap around a lesson in the “New Philosophy” of King Charles II’s England in 1678.

Remember Robert Hooke from your science lessons? He discovered Hooke’s Law. (Actually, he discovered properties of elasticity, for which he received the accolade of having his name bestowed upon the formula.) He was an engineer, an architect, a scientist with a wide-ranging eye. He looked down upon the earth and up at the stars. Nothing was too small or great for his notice.

Author Robert J. Lloyd did extensive research on this great era of British scientific innovation and enlightenment. Boyle, Newton, Wren, and Pepys were contemporaries. Hooke was a major light in the Royal Society of London.

When Lloyd’s story starts, London is being rebuilt after the Great Fire. Although it rates no more than a couple of mentions, Hooke is involved as engineer and architect for some of the restoration projects. Britain is also recovering from the Civil Wars of 1642-1651, Oliver Cromwell’s leadership of the new Parliament, and King Charles I’s execution, and then Cromwell’s execution after his death (he was exhumed and then beheaded) and King Charles II’s assumption of the throne.

The story opens with the suicide of the current Secretary of the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge. Hooke covets that position and Henry Oldenburg’s body is hardly cool before Hooke is politicking to be his replacement. That leaves the solution to a mystery brought to his doorstep in the hands of Hooke’s former assistant, Henry “Harry” Hunt, currently an Observator with the London Society. 

The body of a very young boy has been discovered at the base of a bridge near a river. There are curious holes in his legs. His body has been drained of blood. Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, Justice of the Peace for Westminster, has asked Hooke to preserve the boy’s body in his vacuum contraption at Gresham College, where Hooke lives and works. 

Since Hooke is too involved in other matters, Harry exceeds Hooke’s remit and attempts to find the boy’s murderer. That leads Harry to dark streets and the discussion of dark matters. He sees first-hand how the physical and psychological wounds inflicted by the Civil Wars are still festering. Harry eventually discovers the depths of the problem the bloodless boy has brought into his life after a couple of attempts to kill him. Who is trying to discourage him from investigating? And, mind, at this point Hooke is attempting to get him to stop as well, as it seems too dangerous to continue the process. Nevertheless, Harry persists.

Although Harry is the hero of the story, he is also a creature of the times. He glories in studying science and knowledge for its own sake. It is disturbing to think there are political and philosophical undercurrents to contend with as well. He is constrained by the many levels of social, legal, and academic hierarchy above him.

Author Lloyd takes pains to describe London at that time. He introduces major historical elements in brief spaces. His is a grand story squeezed into a little bitty bite. There is the looming potential of political intrigue stamped onto the story of the dead boy. Soon, two dead boys. How about three dead boys? Are there more? Is this similar to the Jack the Ripper story, in which a royal is suspected of being the villain? Or is it a scientist with lofty goals but an amoral heart? Or are these boys just more victims of the squalor and degradation of London at the time?

“The Bloodless Boy” is a hefty novel, weighted by its detailing of the history and personages of the time. Do we really need to know “The walls of the corridor were a dark salmon colour, with a faded floral pattern on the peeling flock paper”? Probably not. (But I bet there are a lot of history geeks — not meant pejoratively at all — who will excitedly grok all this stuff.)

Bet there will be more Harry Hunt books.