beishir

This is the second book in the YA Sinister City series and it is every bit as well written as the first book, [b:The Black Book of Secrets|1802710|The Black Book of Secrets|F.E. Higgins|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317791256s/1802710.jpg|174367].

The series looks at the seamier side of life in Urbs Umida, which is a thinly veiled, Victorian-era London.

This book explores the squalor of Dickensian life on the wrong side of the river and touches on side-show horrors, phrenology and body-watching (a duty taken on by some undertakers to be certain that the dead were actually dead before burial).

While the books are loosely related, and the activities run in parallel to each other, there is a common thread that runs through the books that makes it IMPERATIVE that the books are read in order.

4 STARS