In her latest spine-tingler, F.E. Higgins (The Black Book of Secrets) continues to explore the gray area where the underbelly and upper echelons of society meet. Here she adds another tantalizing element: the fine line that divides sanity from insanity.
Twelve-year-old Rex Grammaticus lost his mother before he ever knew her. But he gets everything he needs from his brilliant engineer-inventor father, Ambrose, a hero in their town of Opum Oppidulum. Together they make blueprints and create models for larger inventions. But then attractive Acantha arrives on the scene and enchants Rex's father. The two marry and within two months she gets Ambrose committed to the Droprock Asylum, on a nearby island surrounded by sheer cliffs. Acantha cooks strange-smelling stews for secret guests and before long inherits all of Ambrose's money under a special 100-day law pertaining to "incurable insanity." However, the lunatics break out of the asylum, and Rex's father is able to convey a cryptic message to his son before he dies--to uncover its meaning, Rex must go to Droprock Island and find the evidence his father left him.
Higgins layers in spooky presences, including a new superintendent for the asylum (with mysterious links to Opum Oppidulum), a tattoo artist with a forked tongue, and a monster inhabiting the waters off of Droprock Island. She also introduces a charming contortionist around Rex's age named Hildred Buttonquail, who becomes an asset to the young hero. Higgins conducts a symphonic blending of all of these characters' subplots, which build to a white-knuckle climax. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness