132,568
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchTwelve Minutes to Midnight by Christopher Edge (view source)
Revision as of 08:59, 27 September 2020
, 08:59, 27 September 2020no edit summary
The year is 1899. Each night at twelve minutes to midnight, the inmates of Bedlam (London's Bethlehem Hospital for the Insane) rise up from their sleep and begin scribbling strange words and messages everywhere they can... scraps of paper, the walls, scraps from their clothes, even on their own skin. These insane ramblings seem to depict the impossible and hint at the future. Thirteen year old Penelope Tredwell, orphan heiress and writer of best-selling magazine The Penny Dreadful, is intrigued. Hiding behind an actor hired to play the noted author of the Penny Dreadful mysteries, Penny drags him unwillingly into a macabre investigation. As she seeks to discover the meaning of insane ramblings of these unfortunate inmates, and turn them into what would be her best-selling and most famous story ever, Penny finds that she's uncovered a sinister plot controlled by a very real, very evil, very unlikely villain, and she may well be the next victim.
Twelve Minutes to Midnight is an exceptional introduction to the mystery genre in children’s literature. This is a fast-paced historical thriller in every sense of the word. Packed full of intrigue and drama, it reads like a 'Sherlock Holmes' for kids, where Arthur Conan Doyle, and other noted authors of the day, make brief appearances that are used to good effect. All the characters are well-drawn and memorable. The dialogue and plot are easy to follow, pulling the reader along through a Victorian landscape of mystery, murder, conspiracy and just a hint of the supernatural. It crams a lot in, but is never over-burdened by its own plot. Never didactic, never boring, I highly recommend Twelve Minutes to Midnight. It will keep you on the edge of your seat! (For ages 9-12). We also have a review of [[The Longest Night of Charlie Noon by Christopher Edge]].
For more thrilling reads that will keep you on the edge of your seat, you might like [[A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler]], [[Empty Quarter by Julia Golding]] and both [[Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge|Fly By Night]] and [[Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge|Twilight Robbery]] by Francis Hardinge.
