The Traitors' Gate
John Huffam is sure the tall man's beard is false. He's sure of little else in November 1849, the year he is fourteen, the year his father is sentenced to London's Whitecross Street Prison.
Maybe the man following John -- who claims to be one Inspector Copperfield -- can explain why. Surely, Pa isn't prepared to reveal the truth, any more than the jovial bailiff, Mr. Tuckum, who knows something, but remains mum. Or the little Frenchman, Mr. Farquatt, who courts John's sister but seems most keen on Pa's work at the Naval Ordinance Office. Or Mr. O'Doul, the Irishman who insists Pa owes him the unimaginable sum of three hundred pounds.
Or what of the one-legged, single-mindedly fierce Sergeant Muldspoon, John's teacher? What about the boy's great-great-aunt, Lady Euphemia Huffam, who could pay the debt but won't for reasons of her own? What about the secretive Mr. Snugsbe of All Hallows Church, who hides himself away in the City's most voluminous coat?
Then there's Chief Inspector Ratchet of Scotland Yard, who is after somebody for some crime or other. True, John has a new friend and ally in Sary the Sneak...but what has even she got up her sleeve?
What John learns on his own is that there's a traitor on the loose, somewhere. And he must uncover the villain -- no matter who it might be.
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Reviews:
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 5-9–Avi returns to the 19th century in this novel of traitors, spies, family, and even love. John Huffam's father works as a clerk in the Naval Ordinance Office in London, and he is suspected of trying to sell a secret about a new weapon to pay his gambling debts. When he is arrested as a debtor, 14-year-old John, the sensible member of his family, must seek financial help from a distant relative, leave school for employment, and unravel the mystery surrounding his father and try to find out why so many people are spying on the Huffams. The novel perfectly captures John's passage from naive boy to disillusioned young man, as his world crumbles when he sees his father more clearly. He develops an unlikely friend, partner, and even romance with the slippery orphan, Sary the Sneak, whose motives sometimes seem as suspect as the many other characters involved. This is a Victorian tale charmingly told in Victorian fashion. Avi's love of the period is evident in how vividly, and without romanticizing, he brings London, teeming with eccentric characters, smells, and sounds, to life. Indeed, the city becomes a central character. With plenty of period detail, this action-packed narrative of twists, turns, and treachery is another winner from a master craftsman.–Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
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From Booklist
Avi, a fan of Charles Dickens, uses some of the circumstances of the writer's early life as a basis for a story set in the wretched world that was midcentury Victorian England. When 14-year-old John Huffman begins his story, things are dire. His father, an amateur actor and employee of the Naval Ordinance Office, is about to be carted off to prison for his gambling debts (just as Dickens' father was sent to debtors' prison). But are the debts the real reason for the imprisonment? John comes to believe more is going on, and he delves deeply into the mystery, where neither things nor people are quite what they seem, and the security of the nation could be at stake. The book is at its best when describing London--seedy, smelly, and a place where almost everybody is out to take advantage of someone else. Some of the lively characters follow in the full-bodied Dickens tradition, but others are truncated, and their motives are only cursorily explained. Slow patches occur, but the solid plot twists at the end are worth waiting for. Ilene Cooper
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