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Junior
Doubleday Books / Random House
Hardbacks £6.99 each
ISBNs: 0385606443 and 0385606451
Reviewed by Bette Paul
[Armadillo 6.3 Autumn 2004]
Excellent production values: small hardbacks in damask patterned linen, decorated with a miniature and olde-worlde script simulating the 'day bookes theyre meant to be. Brilliant promotion ¨ pity about the stories.
They are set at the court of Queen Elizabeth with Lady Grace herself as the detective heroine, a faded copy of Sally Lockhart, I suspect. They are almost ripping yarns, with almost-impossible plot twists but the author injects great gobs of history into almost every paragraph, including a glossary and notes at the end. In contrast to the tedious authenticities, the dialogue is utterly twenty-first century and middle-class, apart from authorial comments in the notes like 'Great guy, eh? (of Henry VIII), and ' like driving a brand-new Ferrari into a tree in order to impress Madonna! (of Raleighs expensive cloak and puddle trick). Horrible Histories meets the Famous Five.