Reviews

Gr 7 Up-Philip Pullman's third Sally Lockhart mystery (Knopf, 1990) finds our Victorian heroine involved in a business career and living a happy Bohemian life with her toddler daughter and assorted friends and household staff. Almost immediately, this idyll is shattered: Sally receives legal notice of divorce proceedings against her-from a man she's never heard of-and in double quick time, her assets and then her child are taken from her. Anton Lesser narrates with the full range of characters and moods he has brought to life in the earlier books in this winning series. Additional challenges for both Sally and Lesser include a new host of characters, specifically Eastern European Jews seeking asylum in Britain. In her search to clear her name and keep her little daughter, Sally finds shelter and a new vocation as social worker among those living and working in London's slums, and then as a housemaid in a rich man's mansion. Pullman keeps multiple tensions on the high wire here: Sally's immediate situation, the plights and politics of the immigrants, the loathesome and paralyzed Mr. Lee with his house built on an ancient London sewer. It's best to read this series in order so that plot twists carry maximum effect. Pullman's story is classic melodrama and Lesser's performance fully realizes the potential the audiobook format holds as an extension, rather than simple recapitulation, of print text. No audiobook collection is complete without this series.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

This sequel to The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North combines heart-thumping suspense, a thorough-going examination of Victorian London's underclass, a lively gang of heroes and villains and a mystery sinister enough to leave readers filled with anxiety. An unknown evildoer has made elaborate plans to steal Sally Lockhart's life away from her--by usurping her home, her business, her daughter Harriet and, finally, her sanity. Elsewhere in London, Jewish immigrants who have fled the Russian pogroms are being systematically fleeced. Daniel Goldberg, a socialist journalist, believes that the evil genius behind these brutal acts is a shadowy figure known as the Tzaddik. Rendered homeless and hounded through London's slums, Sally endures a plight that in many ways mirrors the mistreatment of the Jews. Aided by Goldberg and a handful of the city's toughest gangsters, the dauntless heroine triumphs over this malevolence. Astute readers are likely to figure out the Tzaddik's identity long before Sally does--a bit of predictability that is at odds with Pullman's otherwise tight plotting. On the whole, however, this thought-provoking romp is as rich and captivating as a modern-day Dickens novel. Ages 12-up. (Nov.)