Shadow Thieves
Shadow Thieves opens with the author asking us to imagine ‘what if’… What if, there’s an alternate reality, where a band of ragged orphans must hustle to survive, ducking and diving from child-catchers intent on imprisoning them into workhouse slavery. What if their wily skills, honed by life on the streets, are not enough?
Courage and the strong bonds of friendship are a necessity to keep the brutality of the workhouse at bay, but when our hero, 13-year-old Tom’s friends are trapped and imprisoned, he vows to save them at all costs. What if somebody offered to make this possible, and what if Tom overcame his guilt at escaping his pals’ fate and accepted the helping hand? Well, then we’d have a real story on our hands!
This story grabs readers immediately with excellent world-building and canny pacing. The maverick idea of having thieves, fraudsters, swindlers and fences as the ‘good guys’ is a great hook, and really fun. The main characters of Tom and Corsair are well fleshed out for a début book, with enough information kept back to make future instalments more revelatory. While some of the twists were predictable enough, older readers will feel like they’re coolly a step ahead, and younger readers will be suitably amazed.
Minor bugbears are lack of development in secondary characters who are slightly unoriginal and it’s very hard not to draw comparison with aspects of the plot that are similar to that of the Harry Potter series. That said, a very entertaining read with real potential to develop into a great series.
