Barnaby Grimes
Legion of the Dead
by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Synopsis (from Amazon)
“The corpses swayed where they stood, their bony arms outstretched before them and tattered sleeves hanging limply in the foggy air. I smelled the sourness of the sewers about them; that, and the sweet whiff of death. Their sunken eyes bored into mine. I was surrounded. . . .”
Barnaby Grimes is a tick-tock lad, delivering messages and running errands all over the city, day and night. Gangland funerals and diving expeditions are hazardous enough, but when the graveyards begin to give up their dead, this tick-tock lad is faced with his deadliest challenge yet. . . .
A blood-curdling tale of greed and betrayal. Will Barnaby be defeated by the Legion of the Dead?
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell’s incomparable Barnaby Grimes returns for another adventure in the third installment of the brilliantly exciting horror-thriller series set in Dickensian London.
Characters:
Barnaby: The main character, he is a tic-toc lad, in other words, an errand boy. He makes his living doing this, and it leads him into all sorts of trouble.
Blindside Bailey: An old war veteran who now sells newspapers and lives penny to penny... he has quite the tale to tell.
Professor Pinkerton-Barnes: Barnaby's friend who asks him to try out all his zany experiements.
Writing: I LOVE Paul Stewart's dark, brooding characters with terrible pasts who partake in terrible actions... these books are lighter than The Edge Chronicles, but still pretty macabre!
Cute, succinct, and nicely wrapped up.
Plot:
This book was pretty simple, since it is a Middle Grade for the younger audience... but the plot follows a clear, concise line that is easy to follow.Overall Grade: B ~ it was entertaining, but a little slow at points.
