History Literature / TheBloodlessBoy

* BloodBrothers: Three of the characters in the novel made a pact by mixing blood while serving together in the English Civil War.

* MadScientist: [[spoiler: Daniel Whitcombe, aka "The Witch."]]
* NerdActionHero: Harry Hunt, increasingly as the story approaches its climax.
* PoliceAreUseless: Played with. Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, while portrayed as an intimidating presence and a conscientious law enforcement officer (although somewhat too willing to assume a sinister Catholic connection behind unexplained events), runs away like a coward when [[spoiler: he and several other characters walk in on Shaftesbury's assassin murdering a loose end]], and he ultimately [[spoiler: ends up murdered himself, as in real life.]] However, he is the one who discovers the keyword needed to decrypt the cipher texts, although exactly how is not explained.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Most of the major players, including Robert Hooke (an actual pioneering 17th-century Polymath), Harry Hunt (albeit only really known from references in Hooke's diaries while serving as the latter's assistant), King Charles II, the Earl, John Locke, Titus Oates, Israel Tonge, and Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey.

** King Charles II, bordering on AffablyEvil. Charles is portrayed as personable, courageous, and apparently innocent of any designs to re-impose Catholicism on England. On the other hand, he is faulted somewhat for essentially ruling as an autocrat without Parliament's input, and his cavalier assertion that [[spoiler: Whitcombe's experiments in revivifying the dead would have been worth the human cost if successful]] at the end of the book paints him in a much worse light. Not mentioned in the novel (as it was unknown even to some of Charles's own ministers and didn't come to light until a century later) is that Charles had secretly made a treaty with France to get the funds necessary to govern without needing to ask for appropriations from Parliament, in return for a promise to publicly convert to Catholicism in the future.

A ConspiracyThriller/historical mystery novel by Robert J. Lloyd, set in London in the late 1670's, during the reign of Charles II. After the body of a toddler boy who has apparently been killed by having all the blood drained out of his body is discovered on the banks of the River Fleet, Royal Society Curator of Experiments Robert Hooke and his former assistant Harry Hunt are called upon to assist in the investigation. An enciphered letter is found with the boy, and just afterwards Hooke receives a letter encrypted in the same cipher. England in the 17th century being what it is, the circumstances of the child's demise are sure to foment theories about grisly Catholic rituals if they become public knowledge, and the pair of "natural philosophers" fear being swept away in a political and religious conflagration depending on what their inquiries uncover. Then the Secretary of the Royal Society, an acquaintance of Hooke and Hunt and sometimes rival of the former, suddenly turns up dead by suicide. Meanwhile, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, just released from the Tower of London after quarreling with the King, plots revenge with the aid of his brilliant assistant John Locke...

A ConspiracyThriller/historical mystery novel by Robert J. Lloyd, set in London in the late 1670's, during the reign of Charles II. After the body of a toddler boy who has apparently been killed by having all the blood drained out of his body is discovered on the banks of the River Fleet, Royal Society Curator of Experiments Robert Hooke and his former assistant Harry Hunt are called upon to assist in the investigation. An enciphered letter is found with the boy, and just afterwards Hooke receives a letter encrypted in the same cipher. England in the 17th century being what it is, the circumstances of the child's demise are sure to foment theories about grisly Catholic rituals if they become public knowledge, and the pair of "natural philosophers" fear being swept away in a political and religious conflagration depending on what their inquiries uncover. Then the Secretary of the Royal Society, an acquaintance of Hooke and Hunt and sometimes rival of the former, suddenly turns up dead by suicide. Meanwhile, the Earl of Shaftesbury, just released from the Tower of London after quarreling with the King, plots revenge with the aid of his brilliant assistant John Locke...

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Most of the major players, including Robert Hooke (an actual pioneering 17th-century Polymath), Harry Hunt (albeit only really known from references in Hooke's diaries while serving as the latter's assistant), King Charles II, the Earl of Shaftesbury, John Locke, Titus Oates, Israel Tonge, and Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey.

The Bloodless Boy uses a large number of real historical figures as characters and constructs its Whodunnit plot around the scaffolding of many real historical events which took place in the early stages of the "Popish Plot," a period of anti-Catholic hysteria based on allegations that Catholics plotted to murder Charles II which were later found to be totally without basis.

A ConspiracyThriller/historical mystery novel by Robert J. Lloyd, set in London in the late 1670's, during the reign of Charles II. After the body of a toddler boy who has apparently been killed by having all the blood drained out of his body is discovered on the banks of the River Fleet, Royal Society Curator of Experiments Robert Hooke and his former assistant Harry Hunt are called upon to assist in the investigation. England in the 17th century being what it is, the circumstances of the child's demise are sure to foment theories about grisly Catholic rituals if they become public knowledge, and the pair of "natural philosophers" fear being swept away in a political and religious conflagration depending on what their inquiries uncover. A mysterious enciphered letter is found with the boy, and just afterwards Hooke receives a letter encrypted in the same cipher. Then the Secretary of the Royal Society, an acquaintance of Hooke and Hunt and sometimes rival of the former, suddenly turns up dead by suicide. Meanwhile, the Earl of Shaftesbury, just released from the Tower of London after quarreling with the King, plots revenge with the aid of his brilliant assistant John Locke...

A ConspiracyThriller/historical mystery novel by Robert J. Lloyd, set in London in the late 1670's, during the reign of Charles II and just after the TheGreatFire. After the body of a toddler boy who has apparently been killed by having all the blood drained out of his body is discovered on the banks of the River Fleet, Royal Society Curator of Experiments Robert Hooke and his former assistant Harry Hunt are called upon to assist in the investigation. England in the 17th century being what it is, the circumstances of the child's demise are sure to foment theories about grisly Catholic rituals if they become public knowledge, and the pair of "natural philosophers" fear being swept away in a political and religious conflagration depending on what their inquiries uncover. A mysterious enciphered letter is found with the boy, and just afterwards Hooke receives a letter encrypted in the same cipher. Then the Secretary of the Royal Society, an acquaintance of Hooke and Hunt and sometimes rival of the former, suddenly turns up dead by suicide. Meanwhile, the Earl of Shaftesbury, just released from the Tower of London after quarreling with the King, plots revenge with the aid of his brilliant assistant John Locke...

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: King Charles II, who is portrayed as personable, courageous, and completely innocent of any designs to re-impose Catholicism on England, although he is faulted somewhat for essentially ruling as an autocrat without Parliament's input. In reality, Charles had secretly made a treaty with France to get the funds necessary to govern without needing to ask for appropriations from Parliament, in return for a vague promise to restore Catholicism in the future. Also, Robert Hooke, who while perhaps not as misanthropic as he was portrayed by some biographers, admitted in his diaries to sexually abusing his niece, Grace. In the novel, Hooke is at worst somewhat self-absorbed and lacking in tact, and there is no hint of him doing anything improper to Grace (who features in the book as a love interest for Harry).

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Not the personality classification, but as you might expect with a plot that involves "natural philosophy" and blood in the 17th century, the old classification system based on the balance of bodily "humors" is referred to.

* Crossdresser: Two mysterious women dressed as men (truly unusual in the 17th century when differences in attire between men and women were much more rigid than today) play a key role in several events.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Most of the major players, including Robert Hooke (an actual pioneering 17th-century Polymath), Harry Hunt (albeit only really known from references in Hooke's diaries while serving as the latter's assistant), King Charles II, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Titus Oates, Israel Tonge, and Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey.

* PoliceAreUsless: Played with. Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, while portrayed as an intimidating presence and a conscientious law enforcement officer (although somewhat too willing to assume a sinister Catholic connection behind unexplained events), iruns away like a coward when [[spoiler: he and several other characters walk in on Shaftesbury's assassin murdering a loose end]], and he ultimately [[spoiler: ends up murdered himself, as in real life.]] However, he is the one who discovers the keyword needed to decrypt the cipher texts, although exactly how is not explained.

A ConspiracyThriller/historical mystery novel by Robert J. Lloyd, set in London in the late 1670's, during the reign of Charles II and just after the TheGreatFire. After the body of a toddler boy who has apparently been killed by having all the blood drained out of his body is discovered on the banks of the River Fleet, Royal Society Curator of Experiments Robert Hooke and his former assistant Harry Hunt are called upon to assist in the investigation. England in the 17th century being what it is, the circumstances of the child's demise are sure to foment theories about grisly Catholic rituals if they become public knowledge, and the pair of "natural philosophers" fear being swept away in a political and religious conflagration depending on what their inquiries uncover. Meanwhile, the Earl of Shaftesbury, just released from the Tower of London after quarreling with the King, plots revenge with the aid of his brilliant assistant John Locke... and then the Secretary of the Royal Society, an acquaintance of Hooke and Hunt and sometimes rival of the former, suddenly turns up dead by suicide.

* NerdActionHero: Harry Hunt, increasingly as the story approaches its climax.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Most of the major players, including Robert Hooke (an actual pioneering 17th-century Polymath), Harry Hunt (albeit only really known from references in Hooke's diaries while serving as the latter's assistant), King Charles II, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Titus Oates, Israel Tongue, and Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: King Charles II, who is portrayed as personable, courageous, and completely innocent of any designs to re-impose Catholicism on England, although he is faulted somewhat for essentially ruling as an autocrat without Parliament's input. In reality, Charles had secretly made a treaty with France to get the funds necessary to govern without needing to ask for appropriations from Parliament, in return for a vague promise to restore Catholicism in the future.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The Earl of Shaftesbury, and especially his assistant John Locke, remembered in real life chiefly for his political writings on individual liberty which were hugely influential on later democratic thinkers.

* EnglishCivilWar: Several of the older characters are veterans of the conflict or remember it, and the unresolved conflicts of ideals which precipitated the war loom large.

The Bloodless Boy uses a large number of Historical Domain Characters and constructs its Whodunnit plot around the scaffolding of many real historical events which took place in the early stages of the "Popish Plot," a period of anti-Catholic hysteria based on allegations that Catholics plotted to murder Charles II which were later found to be totally without basis.

The debut novel by Lloyd, The Bloodless Boy was first published in October 2021. The author is reportedly at work on a sequel.