Katherine Rundell - The Good Thieves - Book Review - Mr. Ripley's Enchanted Books

Trotting out this summer is the latest installment by Katherine Rundell. The Good Thieves will hit the shops on the 13th of June 2019. The book will be published in a lovely hardback edition by Bloomsbury Publishing. I'm a very big fan of the amazing cover that has been produced by Matt Saunders. In the finished copy, which I have not yet seen, there are some exquisite black and white chapter headers by the illustrator as well. They not only add a little slice of detail but also transport you straight back to the 1920s in New York City. 

This is an example of one of the images that I've had permission from the illustrator to use from his Twitter feed. You can check out some of his others at: @msaunders_ink. 

The magic of adventure is here to see in this book. The opening lines of the first chapter are both poetic and captivating. Vita set her jaw and nodded at the city in greeting, as a boxer greets an opponent before a fight. That is probably one of my favourite opening lines to a book for some time. It feels like a quotation from the great boxer, Muhammad Ali.

The plot is focused around a group of children (all fantastically different) who come together to right a wrong. Vita is the main character. A born fighter, she arrives on the wind with her mother from England. Fresh off the boat in New York City, she admires the horizon: tall, grey, blue and beautiful. However, Vita Marlowe is there for a reason. She has a job to do. Her beloved grandfather (Jack) has been cheated out of his home and possessions by a notorious conman with Mafia connections. Seeing Jack's spirit is broken, Vita is desperate to make him happy again. So, she devises a plan to outwit his enemies and recover his home. However, will Vita and her newfound friends be up to the challenge?

The story slowly creeps inside you and grips you with a brilliant all-out action heist of a plot like no other. As the adventure slowly builds, the characters personalities seep through and pull you on a journey of friendship and crazy antics that entertain. It's a story of loyalty, bravery and clever thinking. There are some brilliant moments built in which make this book both an entertaining triumph and a joy to read. 

The author has done a fantastic job of capturing the time period - approximately five years after the First World War. The children in the book radiate the feeling of recovery and anticipation as they bring their talents together to overcome any obstacles in their way. It's a fantastic story to escape into; an acrobatic circus of delights and truly wonderful storytelling with nature and wildness running at its heart. 

This is a brilliant story full of heart-stopping moments, thrills, spills and many different smiles. It's a fantastic performance - a pickpocket delight to read - where two boys with unusual skills, two girls full of determination and a host of animals find themselves in a death-defying adventure. What more could you possibly want? 

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: The Great Shelby Holmes: Girl Detective by Elizabeth Eulberg & Illustrated by Matt Robertson - Book Review

Shelby Holmes is not your average sixth grader. She’s nine years old, barely four feet tall, and the best detective her Harlem neighborhood has ever seen–always using logic and a bit of pluck (which yes, some might call “bossiness”) to solve the toughest crimes.

When eleven-year-old John Watson moves downstairs, Shelby finds something that’s eluded her up till now: a friend. The easy-going John isn’t sure of what to make of Shelby, but he soon finds himself her most-trusted (read: only) partner in a dog-napping case that’ll take both of their talents to crack.

2016 has seen a large number of mystery/detective books being published for children around the world. This is a new series to look out for which is set to be published in the UK in Jan 2017 by Bloomsbury, it can already be purchased in the US. It is a BRILLIANT book which will add a very welcome voice, to this every growing genre. This is the first title in the series and features some amazing illustrations produced by the wonderful Matt (green fingered) Robertson. 

The book cover is brilliant; it captures the story inside very well through the bright, colourful and really appealing graphics. The story is an easy read which will suit many readers including those with a short attention span. The plot is captivating and you will find yourself unable to put the book down. The narrative is short and snappy and the main character, Shelby Holmes, is an absolute joy to read. She is a brilliant character - distinctive and very socially awkward - just like the real Sherlock Holmes. The relationship that plays out between her and John Watson is heartwarmingly portrayed, whilst their developing friendship might make you chuckle in unexpected places. You will encounter some silly Holmes-type jokes scattered about like clues on a dangling lead that may make you laugh or cry. At the very least, your sense of humour will be sorely tested. 

The book brought back some nostalgic memories of my time in New York City earlier this year. The author knows this city very well as she moved from Wisconsin to New York City in pursuit of a writing career. The first few chapters instantly transported me back to my time on holiday; it left a yearning fantasy to go back and walk the streets of Manhattan with the characters and play super sleuth myself. 

This is a dog kidnapping caper that will lead your super sensitive nose through a very enjoyable fantasy adventure. All the characters you associate with a good Sherlock adventure can be found: Holmes, Watson, Lestrade and, of course, Mrs. Hudson. All are caught up in action like you've never seen them before. In contemporary Harlem (NYC), a mystery needs solving around every corner. Fortunately, nine-year-old super sleuth, Shelby Holmes, is on tap to deal with and solve these. This is a great and engaging read that will keep you on your toes. 

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Guest Post - Iris by HP Wood - (Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet)

Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet by H.P. Wood is one of the best adult books that I've read in a very long time. I really would recommend it with my heart. If you would like to read my book review for it, then click the link Here. This guest post, by the author, is a really good insight as to how the book has evolved into the story that you will hopefully read. I hope this post inspires you to pick up a copy and give it a try. 

My book, MAGRUDER’S CURIOSITY CABINET, is set among the sideshow folk of 1900s Coney Island.  Consequently, it features many characters who were considered “oddities” at the time, but who we today would describe as “disabled.”

As someone born into a pretty typical body, I had a lot of thinking and listening and researching to do, in order to create believable characters whose lives were so different from my own.  The seed for all those characters can be traced back to someone I met more than 30 years ago.

I was just a kid—maybe 11 or 12? I’m not even sure now—and I’d gotten the opportunity to volunteer at a Special Olympics event.  (Special Olympics was founded in 1968 to provide athletic opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities.)  Each volunteer was paired with an athlete, and volunteers were charged with helping the athletes make their way from event to event, assisting them in whatever way they might need, and just generally being their buddies and personal cheering section. 

I still remember the pamphlet I filled out in order to volunteer.  So many smiling, joyful faces—people cheering, sharing snacks, putting medals on each other.  And hugging.  Lots and lots of hugging.  

I was the only child of a taciturn New England family.  I was down for some serious hugging.

So when the big day arrived, it was with much eagerness—and stored-up hugs—that I greeted my athlete.  Let’s call her Iris. 

Iris was not at all what I expected.  She was older than me, for one thing, which was not important in-and-of-itself, but the thing was: Iris seemed aware that she was older, in a way that I wasn’t prepared for.  Suddenly this notion of little me as Iris’s “helper” took on a weight I didn’t expect.  I felt embarrassed of myself in a way that I couldn’t begin to understand at the time.

Iris didn’t smile.  She didn’t seem to want to be friends.  And she didn’t want a helper.  

But she had trouble sorting out which event was next.  The little map we’d been given seemed mysterious to her.  Managing her sneakers and sweatshirt and backpack plus a water bottle and that damned map seemed insurmountable.  So she did need me.  But she didn’t want me.  And she sure as hell wasn’t going to hug me.

We trudged from event to event, mostly in awkward silence.  “Do you want to do X,” I would ask.  “Should we go see about Y?”  Iris would shrug and keep walking.  

All around us: cheering, laughing, the occasional skinned knee.  And hugging. Just like the brochure promised: lots and lots of hugging.  But not for me. 

At the end, I returned Iris and her participation medals to her kind-eyed parents.  “Congrats on your medals,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could fake, “it was great hanging out with you.” 

“Sure,” Iris said down at her sneakers.  And that was it.

For a long time, I kept this story in my mental file of “Life’s Minor Disappointments.”  But decades later, when I started working on MAGRUDER’S, the memory of Iris returned to me.  And I realized that there’s a very different moral to that story than I’d realized when I was young.

Iris didn’t step out of some brochure.  She was a kid like me. In a certain sense, yes, she was unlike me. But she was a complete individual with moods and motivations just as complex as my own.

Maybe it angered her to be led around like a puppy by someone younger than herself.  Maybe she felt—even if she couldn’t express—humiliated or even enraged by the power dynamic between us.  Maybe the whole spectacle offended her: all these neurotypical kids bused in to see how the other half lives, patting each other on the back for being such good little volunteers.  Scooping up un-earned hugs like so many participation medals.

Or maybe the problem was simpler.  Perhaps she wasn’t feeling well that day, maybe she’d argued with her mother.  Heck, what if Iris just didn’t like sports?  I never liked sports—my school’s annual “field day” events were nightmares for me.  So why did I assume Iris liked sports?  

On the other hand, maybe she had a perfectly fine time, and she just wasn’t able to communicate as much.  I believe she let me take her hand at one point. To me, a poor substitute for a hug.  But it could have been the very best she had to offer.

The point is, Iris was a subject—her own subject.   She was not my object.  It was not her job to make me feel good, or to compensate for whatever hug deficit I might have been experiencing.  

Remembering Iris was just the beginning of the work I had to do in order to write MAGRUDER’S.  But holding her in my mind, revisiting those eyes that didn’t owe me a goddamned thing, was definitely the foundation of everything that followed.

To be clear, the disabled characters in my novel aren’t angry, necessarily.  I mean, sometimes they’re angry.  Sometimes they’re happy.  Sometimes they’re scared.  Sometimes they’re in love.  Sometimes they’re a little drunk.  

Just like the rest of us.  

About H.P. Wood: Is the granddaughter of a mad inventor and a sideshow magician. Instead of making things disappear, she makes books of all shapes and sizes. She has written or edited works on an array topics, including the history of the Internet, the future of human rights, and the total awesomeness of playing with sticks. She lives in Connecticut with a charming and patient husband, a daughter from whom she steals all her best ideas, and more cats than is strictly logical. You can find her at hpwood.net.

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Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: H. P. Wood - Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet - Adult Book Review

May 1904. Coney Island's newest amusement park, Dreamland, has just opened. Its many spectacles are expected to attract crowds by the thousands, paying back investors many times over.  

Kitty Hayward and her mother arrive by steamer from South Africa. When Kitty's mother takes ill, the hotel doctor sends Kitty to Manhattan to fetch some special medicine.  But when she returns, Kitty's mother has vanished. The desk clerk tells Kitty that she is at the wrong hotel.  The doctor says he's never seen her before, although Kitty notices he is unable to look her in the eye.

Alone in a strange country, Kitty meets the denizens of Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet. A relic of a darker, dirtier, era, Magruder's is home to a forlorn flea circus, a handful of disgruntled Unusuals, and a mad Uzbek scientist. Magruder's Unusuals take Kitty under their wing and resolve to find out what happened to her mother. 

But as a plague spreads, Coney Island is placed under quarantine.  The gang at Magruder's finds that a missing mother is the least of their problems, as the once-glamorous resort is abandoned to the freaks, anarchists, and madmen.

Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet is one big curiosity at the wrong end of Coney Island set around 1904. Opening the door only increases the likelihood that someone might actually come on in. However, only a fool like me would enter, but enter you should. Dust down those fantasy braincells and enter into the world that is breathtaking, amazing and very original.  

This is NOT a children's book even though the book cover might lead younger readers into believing that it is due to it's playful nature. However, this book has to be one of the best debut adult books that I have read for some time. The last book to make me feel like this was Erin Morgenstern's 'The Night Circus' which does have some similarities, in my opinion. Both books have a magical and mysterious setting that will absorb you slowly and intellectually into the story; they are written and researched very well. Attention to detail is a key for books like this - trying to get the period details as accurate as you can. Getting the mood of the time and making it feel "real" and "believable" enables the writer, in this case, to draw you into a chaotic and vibrant world that is unique, enchanting and very, very strange.

Once you start on this journey and turn the pages, the plot will certainly fly by. You will not only read this story you will actually inhale it, feel it and almost touch it. You will walk the Boardwalk in the footsteps of an eclectic mix of characters known as the Unusuals or "freaks of nature". These are biological rarities that were exhibited to shock you and sometimes deceive you. In this case, they will charm you like a prize rattlesnake in full flight. You get to feel and uncover all of the characters emotions and back stories - not just the main ones. It's gripping stuff! You start out with Zep as he unlocks the heavy oak door of Theopilus P. As a result of Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet, like all of the other characters, you will soon find yourself gravitating to this special place of intrigue, mystery and science. You will really not want to leave. 

This book pulls no literary punches and hides behind no fairground ride. It is a book of death, violence, corruption and certainly greed. The inhabitants of Coney Island face a deadly coughing strand of the plague, which brings a world of chaos, mayhem, destruction and a rather unpleasant death. It will have you engrossed until the very end of the narrative and beyond.

This is a very special read that you will not forget in a hurry. It's a rollercoaster of weirdness and the extreme bizarre. It's full of sadness, happiness, action, friendship, murder, mystery and romance. It's a fantastically colourful insight into a lost world; around every corner you will marvel at the craziness such as the flea circus, mad scientists, con artists and disgruntled characters. 

It is all in there as it has been lifted out of the author's amazing imagination and put before your very eyes. Some people may not get everything behind this book, as it's an acquired taste for sure. However it's an incredible read that I really loved, and I really hope that you will too. I only wish that I'd visited Coney Island on my recent NYC holiday. I would love to see H.P Wood write another story around this setting; the characters certainly deserve this, in my opinion, and so do I as the reader. This book is due to be published in the US by Sourcebooks in June 2016.

Mr Ripley's Children's Book Recommendation - Allen Zadoff - Boy Nobody

                                        

They needed the perfect assassin.

Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school in a new town under a new name, makes a few friends, and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend's family to die-of "natural causes." Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, moving on to the next target.

But when he's assigned to the mayor of New York City, things change. The daughter is unlike anyone he has encountered before; the mayor reminds him of his father. And when memories and questions surface, his handlers at The Program are watching. Because somewhere deep inside, Boy Nobody is somebody: the kid he once was; the teen who wants normal things, like a real home and parents; a young man who wants out. And who just might want those things badly enough to sabotage The Program's mission.

In this action-packed series debut, author Allen Zadoff pens a page-turning thriller that is as thought-provoking as it is gripping, introducing an utterly original and unforgettable antihero.

The explosive new thriller for fans of Jason Bourne, Robert Muchamore and Michael Grant.

Book Published by Orchard - 23 May 2013

Follow him on twitter @allenzadoff and check out his website here http://www.allenzadoff.com/

Tom Dolby - Secret Society - Guest Book Review

Book Review by Jenny over at cityofbooks.blogspot.com. Thanks for the great review. If you've enjoyed this review and would like to read more reviews by Jenny, then just click the link above.

From Amazon: An eccentric new girl. A brooding socialite. The scion of one of New York’s wealthiest families. A promising filmmaker. As students at the exclusive Chadwick School, Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch already live in a world most teenagers only dream about. They didn’t ask to be Society members. But when three of them receive a mysterious text message promising success and fame beyond belief, they say yes to everything. Even to the harrowing initiation ceremony in a gritty warehouse downtown, and to the ankh-shaped tattoo they’re forced to get on the nape of their necks. Once they’re part of the Society, things begin falling into place for them. Week after week, their ambitions are fulfilled. It’s all perfect—until a body is found in Central Park with no distinguishing marks except for an ankh-shaped tattoo.

I've always been fascinated by secret societies and New York life, so a book combining the two was always going to be high on my radar. Tom Dolby has combined secrets, lies and high society life to form a book shrouded in mystery and intrigue.

Secret Society features a plethora of characters -- some that I liked, and some that I could easily leave. Phoebe, Patch (love this name) and Nick were my favourites, with their stories being the most interesting to follow. I'm not saying the other characters weren't good, they just didn't stick in my mind as much as these three did.

Another part of Secret Society that I really enjoyed was the society itself, complete with creepy founders and a compulsory ankh tattoo. The influence the society has on people's lives is shocking, not to mention scary. Imagine not being to go anywhere or do anything without somebody else knowing: it would be a nightmare. There's always a price to pay in situations like this, and in this case, freedom and privacy quickly bit the dust. Patch probably dealt with it the best way, as he defied warnings and faced the society head-on. Whether that will come back to haunt him is anyone's guess, but i'm betting his immediate future won't be plain sailing.

The book's slower pace occasionally frustrated me, though it was the perfect way to create suspense. It slowly but surely reaches a satisfying conclusion, and successfully sets the scene for a sequel. I'm looking forward to delving deeper into the dangerous world of the society, and just hope that any future installments will pick up the pace a bit.

Book Published by Katherine Tegen Books Oct 2009 - U.S and for more information on the book or the author here is the link.www.tomdolby.com


~pRoPhEcY gIrL~