Book Review: The Blackthorn Key
The Blackthorn Key, by Kevin Sands
Middle-grade fantasy
***
It's 1665, and London's apothecaries are being mysteriously murdered.
Christopher Rowe, fourteen-year-old apprentice to master apothecary Benedict Blackthorn, knows he and his master are in danger. But while the cryptic recipes his master uses to create healing potions are becoming easier for Christopher to decipher, his master's increasingly odd behavior is not.
Master Benedict has left him a note coded in a way Christopher has never seen before.
The one sentence he can read warns him to "Tell no one what I've given you." But it may be too late. The murders already know about the note, and they want its contents, which could quite literally tear the world apart if Christopher can't stop them first.
***
A fantastically fun and fast-paced story, The Blackthorn Key is on the shelves at the Chehalis Library in time for summer reading!
Surprisingly humorous despite its backdrop of, well, murder, the story falls into the category of historical fantasy rather than solid history and manages to remain thoroughly amusing throughout.
A great fit for middle-grade readers who love the mystery of Stuart Gibbs' FunJungle books; the humor of Varian Johnson's The Great Greene Heist; and the heart of Lisa McMann's The Unwanteds series, The Blackthorn Key is also part of a series, which means readers get to hang out with Christopher again in September 2016.
You can reserve a copy of the book here.
