What starts as an ordinary picket-pocketing incident in Victorian London unites three teens against a madman. Eddie is the pickpocket; George is an assistant at the British Museum; Elizabeth has a nose for trouble--and all of them are being hunted by Augustus Lorimore. Lorimore is a sinister factory owner, a villain bent on reanimating the dead, both humans and dinosaurs--and one of each is already terrorizing the streets of London. It's up to Eddie, George, and Elizabeth to stop Lorimore's monsters . . . or die trying.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-9Π ΠΠ βΠ²ΠΡHorror fans will delight in this British import by Justin Richards (Bloomsbury, 2006) set in foggy London in the 1800s. George Archer toils in the back offices of the British Museum as the youngest member of the Department of Unclassified Artifacts. When thieves burst in and kill his co-worker, George attempts to uncover why a scrap of paper from an obscure scientist's diary would be worth a man's life. Circumstances lead George to team up with a minister's daughter and a homeless pickpocket. The trio discovers the diary is sought by Augustus Lorimore, an industrialist with delusions of grandeur. The chase is on and narrator Steven Pacey picks up the pace and leads listeners on a breathless romp through Victorian London complete with a sΓ©ance, walking zombies, and a fire-breathing monster. Suggest this title to students who enjoyed Eleanor Updale's Montmorency series. With a pinch of Poe and a dash of Mary Shelley, listeners will be deliciously entertained.Π ΠΠ βΠ²ΠΡTricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK
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From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. "Four days after his own funeral, Albert Wilkes came home for tea." It's hard to resist an opening line like that one, which sweeps readers right into this highly atmospheric story that invites at least nascent comparison to Frankenstein and Sherlock Holmes. However, kids who have read Richards' Ghost Soldiers (2006), part of his Invisible Detective series, can't help but recognize a lot of similarities: three young protagonists (in this case, 19-year-old clockmaker, George; Liz, 18, daughter of an elderly clergyman; and intrepid street urchin Eddie); a foggy British backdrop that provides convenient cover for the activities of both heroes and villains; and a powerful megalomaniac, well on the road to creating monstrous beings that will topple world order. Readers will certainly need to suspend disbelief here, but the creepy combination of horror and mystery picks up speed deliciously with every turn of the page. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright ''Β© American Library Association. All rights reserved