Eleven year old Bram Stoker, future author of Dracula, escapes school to 1850s Dublin City seeking adventure. There he meets Molly Malone, accomplished sneak thief and part time fishmonger. Together they must thwart the evil Count Vladimir who plans to steal the Irish Crown Jewels from Dublin Castle.
Alan is well known for his illustrated books, both for young readers and confident. (If you ever have a chance to see Alan live, absolutely do not miss it.) This is slightly out of his norm, being a longer story with no illustrations, but it still has his anarchic sense of humour.
Alan has taken the historical character of Bram Stoker, who grew up in Dublin in real life, and added the fictional character of Molly Malone, she of the fish cart, while they're both preteens. Alan's version of Molly is a part time fish monger and full time pickpocket (except for Tuesday, that's rest day.) Molly and her gang quite literally crash into Bram as he's searching for inspiration for his later writing, and they become entangled in an attempt to steal the Irish crown jewels. As you do.
Alan's sense of humour is on display here, and the bits of history included are fascinating (Charles Dickens performed A Christmas Carol in the Rotunda! Ireland really had Crown Jewels!). The map and Dramatis Personae at the front are really helpful as well - since this is set in the 1880s, several streets have older names and I didn't immediately place all of them.
I really enjoyed this and I can't wait to (hopefully) read more adventures of the Sackville Street Spooks!
The Sackville Street Caper is available now. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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