The Printer's Devil

by Paul Bajoria

Overview

The notorious inhabitants of London's criminal underworld are all in a day's work for Mog, the printer's apprentice, who prints their "wanted" posters. A real-life meeting with a convict entangles Mog in a secret scheme in this suspenseful tale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316089104
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	10/31/2009
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Paul Bajoria is a writer and producer for BBC Radio 4. He was born in 1964 to a British mother and an Indian father, and grew up in the North East of England. He took English degrees at Oxford and Toronto universities, and began working for the BBC as a local radio reporter in 1989. He lives in Northumberland with his partner and their two young children. The Printer's Devil is his first book.

Editorial Reviews

Roving the reeking back streets of Victorian London, a printer's apprentice falls into a bewildering-to readers, at least-tangle of corruption, crime, deceit, betrayal and murder. A case of mistaken identity and an ominous overheard conversation send young Mog into a brutal underworld where thugs war over a shipment of a new, potent drug from India. Carrying a personal secret, anticlimactically revealed partway through, Mog survives repeated brushes with violence, forms an uneasy alliance with a previously unsuspected twin, slips briefly backward in time (or maybe not) and catches tantalizing hints of family tragedy-all on the way to a wild climax that thins the supporting cast considerably, but leaves the waters still thoroughly muddy. Bajoria provides a suitably atmospheric setting, a whiff of the supernatural and plenty of cliffhangers, but leaves so many dots unconnected that the tale needs a sequel to prop it up. (Fiction. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews

The dark and dangerous side of Victorian England comes to light in this tale of an orphan who finds himself in the middle of a mystery and a den of thieves. Being hunted because he looks like someone else, Mog is quickly cast into a threatening situation. Katy Kellgren expertly animates Mog, the printer’s devil, or helper, as well as the evil Cockburn and other miscreants who roam the back alleys and ships’ docks. Kellgren’s native British accent enhances the characterizations, and adds realism and background to the setting of the story. Reminiscent of Dickens in its use of description and view of the human condition, this novel has both fateful twists and lessons of hope. D.L.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 06 - AudioFile