Knightley and Son: K9 by Rohan Gavin
| Knightley and Son: K9 by Rohan Gavin | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Linda Lawlor
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| Summary: Dark and dangerous hounds are attacking policemen when the moon is full, and once again thirteen-year-old Darkus is called upon to solve a bizarre and perplexing mystery. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 314 | Date: August 2014 |
| Publisher: Bloomsbury | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781408851432 | |
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Young fans of Sherlock Holmes will be happy to see this, the second in the series devoted to the tweed-wearing teenage detective. Together with his father (well, more or less: the poor man slips into a semi-coma whenever he gets stressed), his clever and resourceful sister and his beloved dog Wilbur, Darkus is soon hot on the trail of the mysterious dogs, which hunt in pairs and are strong enough to tear a man's throat out. If the creatures are indeed just dogs, that is . . .
Darkus is a young man determined to assist his father in his investigations, although he is far less ready to accept the supernatural explanations that come so readily to the older detective's mind. He is bright, gifted in deductive reasoning, and he has a photographic memory. This last ability comes in particularly handy when someone – presumably a member of the evil group known as the Combination – destroys all the case files in his father's small London house. Once his father awakens from his four-year coma during the first volume in the series he desperately needs what lies in Darkus' memory to defeat a particularly cruel and heartless villain. But now our hero feels that despite his father's promise of a partnership he is no longer needed: stuck miles away, living with his mother and foolish stepfather, he doesn't even know what case his father is working on any more. Then Uncle Bill, Director of the Department for the Unexplained, is attacked, and Darkus' particular brand of braininess is needed once more.
In many another book Darkus' story would be about bullying, loneliness and the miseries of being somewhat of a nerd. After all, how many teenagers do you know who wear tweed? But that is not what these books are about at all. True, our hero needs the people skills of his stepsister Tilly at times, though her blind determination to catch the people who killed her mother can sometimes be as much a hindrance as a help. And he clearly gets on better with adults than other young people, despite the fact that they can at times be foolish to the point of silliness. But this doesn't trouble him overmuch: like his father he concentrates on the task at hand, often to the exclusion of all else, and uses his mind as much as his skill at the martial art of Wing Chun to escape from danger. Many a clever, mild-mannered and quiet young man will enjoy identifying with him.
Darkus is a little cold as a character, but not without emotion: his desire to emulate and assist his father is his driving force, and he is capable of feeling deep grief. He has extraordinary and thrilling adventures in his fight against a shadowy but deadly foe, and the books about his exploits will bring much pleasure to readers tired of the derring-do and astonishing feats of physical prowess that are demanded of many young heroes in fiction.
Sherlock Holmes holds an undying fascination for readers both young and old. Bookbag recommends Young Sherlock Holmes: Snake Bite by Andrew Lane as well as others in the series like Fire Storm. If you prefer a simpler, more contemporary story, try Saxby Smart: Private Detective: The Secrets of the Skull by Simon Cheshire.
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