Victorian London. Meet Cassia Thorne. She lives with her father in a debtor’s prison and she sells ballads at Bartholomew Fair in a bid to buy her freedom. Now children from the fair and the streets and the workhouse are going missing and Cassia, along with her friends Felix and Teo, decides to investigate. Something strange is happening. Every one of the missing children known about disappeared when a strange song was playing. As Cassia and her friends get deeper into the mystery they discover that a beast is alive and hungry and that someone is feeding the beast children …
This story is fabulous. Think Oliver Twist if Oliver Twist was a mystery for the middle grade market. Think multiple Fagans and all the characters who failed to help Oliver being the suspects. Throw in a fantastical beast and change the protagonist to a determined, headstrong girl and you have the gist. I couldn’t put the book down because I wanted to know what was going on and I can imagine young readers reacting in a similar way.
The Victorian London setting contributes brilliantly to the mystery and to the themes of injustice and making a fairer society by offering those in need a hand up. Cassia has her eyes wide open and she sees that so many of the wealthy make life harder for those most in need. The setting also provides atmosphere with the music and smells of the fairground and the old rivers stirring to life and that Dickensian London fog.
Cassia Thorne is a fantastic middle grade mystery heroine. She’s determined and brave and she sees through the unkindnesses of the people most in a position to help those who have very little. Her circumstances have filled her with a fire and she won’t let the injustice of kidnapped children go unnoticed. She’s also a writer and a musician and she’s shaped by her childhood in India and the wonderful stories and music that she heard there. Cassia ia a fabulous rounded character to lead a new mystery series. Felix and Teo are great characters too. Felix is softly spoken and wealthy. He often doesn’t see the injustices around him but he is a great role model in the sense that he is ready to learn and admit his mistakes. Teo is fiery and funny and, having stolen for a living, knows criminal London like the back of his hand. His story is a secondary mystery to the main plot and he’s a character who teaches readers to empathise with situations they maybe haven’t encountered.
The ending was well worth the wait and I loved piecing together the mystery alongside Cassia, Felix and Teo. The first Cassia Thorne mystery is a must read, and so intelligently and creatively written, and I can’t wait to pick up Zohra Nabi’s fantasy books to catch up on the work of this exciting middle grade author.
- Deep Dark by Zohra Nabi is available now from Simon And Schuster UK. RRP. £7.99 (Book provided for review as part of a promotional blog tour)
