The Bloodless Solider - 3/10

As the first story of the 'proper' Jago & Litefoot series this was a disappointment in all honesty.

My main and biggest problem of this story is the fact that sometimes its just downright difficult to follow, I found during some of the scenes it just felt like a kerfuffle of noise instead of a story - but in fairness that probably due to the snarling from this story's monster.

With that said it certainly wasn't all bad. The actual plot itself was alright, but a criticism I will bring is that without any other knowledge of this series (which I didn't have at the time) it didn't grip me as well as it could of. But now in retrospect after listening to the entirety of series 1 this story feels a lot more full I think, with that fact in mind I would say the rating would probably increase a number or two (retrospectively).

The setting is brought to life very well here though with this idea of Victorian London feeling very alive and real. I enjoyed a lot of the atmosphere of this story but yet again this story does benefit with looking at it after listening to the whole series which I really can decide if that's a positive or negative thing (in all honesty it s probably a bit of both).

Overall The Bloodless Solider gets a 3/10 because as an opener its weak. However it does definitely benefit in retrospect after listening to the whole series - and in fairness it didn't put me off so it can't of done too much wrong can it. Jago & Litefoot were wonderful together as always.