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Pin Carpue is on his own in the world. His mother is dead and his father is missing after being labeled a suspect in a rash of murders. Pin finds a job working for the local undertaker as a body watcher, making sure people are really dead before they’re buried. The body he’s supposed to be watching tonight is currently surrounded by three people engaged in a most unusual ceremony. An old man, a bone magician, and his young female assistant are waking a woman so her grieving fiancé can have one last goodbye with her. Pin can’t believe it will work, but then the dead woman sits up and speaks.
Pin is determined to discover how the magic works. He cannot believe they are raising the dead. He cannot believe his father is a murderer. Then Pin himself nearly becomes the killer’s next victim.
As this mysterious tale unfolds with delicious creepiness, Pin will learn more about the bone magician, the girl Juno, and a hideous creature called the Gluttonous Beast that is kept in a local tavern where people pay for a glimpse.
Once again, F.E. Higgins delivers a story that is full of intrigue and suspense.
Gr 6-10
Left to survive on his own in the pestilent and crime-ridden city of Urbs Umida after the disappearance of his father (a suspected murderer), Pin Carpue's trustworthy nature earns him employment as a corpse watcher, assuring his skittish employer that the dead are truly dead. But Pin's seemingly straightforward job becomes more complicated when he is drugged at his post and subsequently witnesses two cloaked figures raise the body in his care for a final communication with a loved one. A series of coincidences leads Pin to seek lodging in the same boarding house occupied by these mysterious individuals-a bone magician named Benedict Pantagus and his troubled assistant, Juno-who also present their corpse-raising spectacle at the city's most notorious tavern. Lonely Pin is soon drawn to Juno and the secrets of her herbs. He strikes a deal with her that they will leave the abominable city together if he is able to divine the secret of bone magic. In tantalizing subplots involving a series of murders, a caged Beast, a dashing phrenologist, a potato-throwing dwarf, and a hideous journalist, Higgins explores the question of spectacle and what constitutes an honest wage. The cast of unusual characters and their interrelated stories carry readers along swiftly to an ending that begs for a sequel. Budding fans of Poe or Dickens will be entranced by this atmospheric novel.-Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI
A corpse on the cusp of putrefaction could hardly be considered the most entertaining company on a winter’s evening, but Pin Carpue didn’t do what he did for the conversation. He did it for the money. Tonight, however, things were different. If the body he was watching—her name, when alive, was Sybil—had revived and tried to engage him in some sort of discourse, he couldn’t have replied even if he had wanted to.
For Pin had just succumbed to a soporific drug. Hardly able to move, certainly unable to speak, he lay in a semi-comatose haze on a bench in the corner of the dark room. The last thing his soggy brain recalled was leaving his lodgings. As for his immediate whereabouts, it was a mystery.
Anonymous
Posted December 4, 2012
By far the greatest joy that I received from this book is getting to see how F.E. Higgins has transformed as an author between her first book and second. The action is plentiful and engaging without the long pauses of dialog constantly interrupting. The violence and graphic content is well balanced and no longer seems like an inappropriate contrast between age groups. The audience is clearly targeted to older readers then the first book and is well defined throughout the story. Higgins gift for explaining her world with a stunning clarity has become even more refined. And most importantly the book holds the mystery and suspense needed to keep the reader turning the pages, something that was desperately missing from the first installment of this series... Read full review at theofficebooks.blogspot
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Jpmario
Posted February 8, 2012
This story is a mystery kinda sci-fi book which will satisfy any thrill seeking reader. Pin, a boy looking for his father, discovers many strange things and people along his journey to prove his father isn't the silver apple killer. To say any more would ruin the adventure.
*GMSclippers
Anonymous
Posted January 27, 2012
If you are planning to read this book make sure you have read the Black Book of Secrets!!!! Otherwise read on this book is just as good as the first!!! In the Bone Magician the young hero questions the existence of magic. Is it real or is it just an illusion? Read it and you won't be dissapointed.
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Posted March 24, 2011
if you're looking for something creepy, get this book! its the best one you'll ever read! But you have to read the black book ok secrets first or it wont have the same affect.
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Overview
Pin Carpue is on his own in the world. His mother is dead and his father is missing after being labeled a suspect in a rash of murders. Pin finds a job working for the local undertaker as a body watcher, making sure people are really dead before they’re buried. The body he’s supposed to be watching tonight is currently surrounded by three people engaged in a most unusual ceremony. An old man, a bone magician, and his young female assistant are waking a woman so her grieving fiancé can have one last goodbye with ...