From Publishers Weekly
Dark fantasists Golden (_The Myth Hunters_) and Lebbon (_Dawn_) pair up for the first time in this macabre tale that recalls Holly Black's acclaimed Valiant. As wary teenager Jasmine Towne runs from the mysterious Uncles who killed her mother, an impulsive dash into an Underground tunnel takes her to Deep Level Shelter 7-K, where she falls in with a group of homeless thieves led by the raggedly elegant Harold Pilkington Fowler. Jazz knows to fear the Uncles, who are stalking her for some magical purpose, but she never expected to see ghosts or hear the restless spirit of the old city wailing in the tunnels. With the help of enigmatic burglar Terence, Jazz investigates her mother's murder and her own mysterious origins and powers. Occasional gaps in the story logic are easy to miss amid the super-fast pacing and creepy touches that give this teen adventure plenty of character. (May)
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From School Library Journal
Adult/High SchoolβJasmine Towne returns to her London home one afternoon to find her mother murdered and the killers searching for her. With a little guile and a lot of luck, she manages to slip away from her pursuers by plunging into the Tube and hiding in abandoned stations and forgotten bomb shelters. She falls in with a group of teenage thieves led by the Faginesque Harry Fowler. She takes to thieving quite quickly, and Fowler sends her out on the most difficult jobs. Emboldened by her new skills, Jazz sets out to rob the mansion of one of the very men who killed her mother. There she meets Terence, who is breaking into the same house. Through him, Jazz learns that her mother's murder, the father she never knew, and even Fowler are all tied in to a secret society striving to revive the ancient spirits and magic hidden below the streets of London and use it for their own dark gains. The only way to avenge her mother's death and to guarantee her own safety is to help Terence set the spirits free. Jazz is the perfect teen heroine: capable, confident, and possessing both a love of trouble and enough smarts to get out of it. While more dark fantasy than horror, the story does have some small grisly sections. The basic setting recalls Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (Morrow, 1997). But the bigger story and the battle over London's magicβto either set it free or to usurp itβlend a fresh take on urban fantasy.β_Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA_
Copyright Β© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.