Dido and Pa
by Joan Aiken

The seventh book in the series that began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase picks up exactly where The Cuckoo Tree left off, with King Richard IV newly crowned in his alternate-history version of 19th-century England, and clever young Dido Twite bemoaning her loneliness while her long-lost friend Simon, who is now the Duke of Battersea, searches for her in the Suffolk downs.

He finds her but nearly immediately loses her again; for at last, DidoÂ’s rotten-to-the-core, brilliant musician father has found a use for her. He wants her to take part in a diabolical, Hanoverian plot against good King Dick, which involves a royal lookalike, a laudanum addict who (for a farthing apiece) lets 83 lollpoops sleep in her cellar, and a mesmerizingly wicked Hanoverian margrave who reckons that the healing powers of music are the only things keeping him alive.

Lollpoops, for those of you who have never lived in a parallel-universe London circa 1840, are some of the 10,000 or so orphan children scraping a living in the streets. Many of them belong to a club that exists for mutual aid and cooperation, though not all the footloose kids of London are kind or trustworthy. ThereÂ’s another group, called the Bowmen, who run a vicious protection racket and serve as spies for the Margrave. But the lollpoops become instrumental in stopping the MargraveÂ’s vile plan, as they make pretty good spies and messengers too.

Even with their help, however, it looks like this time Dido and her friends may have met their match. How can you stop people who have no conscience, and who have the brains, the money, and the manpower to make anyone (including the King himself) disappear? How can you stop an evil plan involving a triumphal procession through a tunnel under the Thames, a concert of original music by Abednego Twite (alias Boris von Bredalbane), a fearfully abused girl known as the Slut, and the convenient fact that only Simon and his sister Sophie remain alive of the KingÂ’s close friends?

And then, in one horrible night, Sophie disappears while attending the MargraveÂ’s musical soiree and Simon is reported missing and presumed dead while battling the fierce, starving wolves that are closing in on London...

This is a gripping, scary adventure and a sensitive character portrait at the same time. This time, though the bad guys get their comeuppance like never before, the good guys experience horror and loss as well. Though the bookÂ’s ending seems to draw the adventures of Dido Twite to a most satisfying conclusion, I hear tell of a more recent book featuring our self-possessed heroine. If I can get hold of Dangerous Games (currently out of print, and the used copies are out of my price range) youÂ’ll hear about it right here. Judging by how this series started good and got better and better, my guess is IÂ’ll be calling for a reprint!

Robbie Fischer
Arizona USA

Recommended Age: 12+

If you would like to contact Robbie, you may do so here.