From the very first page, readers will be hooked. Everyone knows that the Crystal Palace burnt to the ground on November 30, 1936. But who knew why it burnt down? The Alone Child, with his hidden box of used matches. The Alone Child knows.
85 years later, young Joe is bored and a bit lonely. His best friend has moved away, Joe loves his little sister, but she's annoying and Joe is a bit miffed that he is lumbered with the job of looking after her, whilst his Dad spends every hour that he can attempting to keep their struggling restaurant, Paradise, open.
Joe finds a broken compass in some bushes on the site where the Crystal Palace once stood. Without warning Joe finds himself plunged back through time to the year of 1888.
He meets a fellow teenager, H. G. Wells who gives him assistance along with Samuel Coleridge Taylor, the famed Iris Blondin, the daredevil daughter of the legendary tightrope walker, Charles Blondin, plus Doctor Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes and the Queen of the Gypsies.
Joe learns of a plot by a team of highly skilled and equally highly dangerous diamond thieves to steal a very famous diamond and with his new found friends he must work to thwart the gang and to learn of some mysterious and dark secrets of the Crystal Palace. He discovers that those secrets are, somehow, linked with the fate of his own family.
But what will happen to young Joe? Will he remain trapped in time with his new found friends? Or will he be able to find a way of returning to his own time and to his own family? Or would he be able to work out how he could retain both?
This is a very readable novel which has pace and a little bit of elan as it tells the story of Joe and his adventures.
It's published by Grass Roots Productions and is available at Waterstones, Amazon and other book retailers.
Although aimed at children of ages 11 to 13, older readers and adults will find much to captivate their minds.
It costs £8.99 and will make a superb Christmas present.
And the good news? It's the first part of a trilogy, so there's more to look forward to!
Graham has his own website at www.grahamwhitlock.com.
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