A Tangle of Traitors

F. E. Higgins

Ages 9 to 11
03 January 2013
9781447217763
224 pages

Synopsis

A twisted adventure of intrigue, magic and superstition from the bestselling F. E. Higgins

Don’t go down to the tar pits, children – for their shores are lined with the wretched wraiths of all the traitors and murderers who have drowned in its bubbling depths. In the shadows of this putrid place, an unlikely new alliance is being formed: they call them The Phenomenals, and only they can save us from a hideous fate that will befall the town if the wraiths escape their tarry shackles . . .

Meet The Phenomenals: Citrine Capodel - heiress to a corrupt empire and framed for a murder she did not commit; Folly Harpelaine - a merciless destroyer of Lurids, who dabbles in the dark arts; Jonah Scrimshander - a deadly harpoonist, who has already cheated death, and Vincent Verdigris - light-fingered and even lighter on his feet.

This gothic fantasy... is fleshed out by Higgins's wild imagination and embellished by her neologisms. The characterisation is vivid and the plotting complex, but not too much so for eager readers.