Hilary Wagner's page-turning debut novel explores an animal kingdom deep below Trillium City, ruled by Topsiders, or humans. Far beneath the Topsiders' trees lie the Catacombs, where the rat ruler Killdeer and his High Collector and Commander of the Kill Army, Billycan, strike fear into the hearts of their citizens. They took the Catacombs by coup during the Great Flood, 11 years ago, killing High Minister Trilok and his loyalists, and conscripting the loyalists' orphaned male children into the Kill Army, and their female children into servitude in the Kill Army kitchen and barracks. Killdeer and Billycan also extract a Stipend from their citizens, many of whom are forced to steal in order to feed their families and provide their ruler with his required contribution. Wagner characterizes Killdeer as a once-fit criminal rat who's grown overlarge due to his excesses of food, females and Oshi berry wine. Billycan, on the other hand, as the sole surviving rat from Topsider lab experiments and noticeable for his white fur, possesses a "cadaverous look" no matter how much he consumes. He proudly wears a scar from what he touts as a fatal duel with one of the greatest Trilok Loyalists, Juniper Belancort.
The action begins on "Hallowtide night" when Topsiders are on the move, "roaming the streets for Pennies-or-Pranking." Young orphan rat brothers Victor and Vincent Nightshade flee the Catacombs to take their chances among the humans, and they stumble upon an undercover group of Trilok loyalists--led by none other than... Juniper Belancort, who lost his eye to Billycan but survived. Juniper has slowly been planning a new, safer civilization below the crumbling Catacombs, as well as a rescue for those who wish to leave--including his niece, Clover Belancort. He joins forces with a tribe of earthworms to cleverly tunnel into loyalist family dwellings, deliver them to safety, and fill in the tunnels upon their departure--erasing all traces of their means of escape. The plot thickens when Killdeer selects Clover as his "Chosen One" to rule at his side, and steps up the ceremony date, forcing Juniper to similarly hasten his strategic attack-and-rescue. Billycan begins to suspect there's an organized effort behind the disappearances in the Catacombs and grows impatient with Killdeer's apathetic and gluttonous ways, and the tension builds between them. As in Brian Jacques's Redwall books, these animals engage in a fight between good and evil, and enlist the help of other species (including a Topsider boy and the band of noble earthworms) in their cause. Wagner includes a few love interests, too. One bookend scene (it begins the book and a slightly expanded version ends the book) seems a bit forced, designed purely to pave the way to a sequel. But fans of Redwall will be swept up in the action and hope that there will indeed be more to come.--Jennifer M. Brown