The Blackthorn Key

By Kevin Sands

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Summary: In 1665 London, apothecary apprentice Christopher Rowe is thrown headlong into a chaotic series of events when his master, popular apothecary Benedict Blackthorn, is brutally murdered. His master’s death is only one in a series of similar murders, and rumours of a cult are rampant on the streets of London. Christopher discovers a coded ledger page left by his master and believes it must hold the formula for Blackthorn’s mysterious experiment. Now homeless and on the run, the apprentice must decrypt the message and follow the clues to uncover what his master died to protect.

Review: This fast-paced historical mystery novel is truly one of the best in its genre – a masterpiece of codes, ciphers and dark mystery. With an explosive opening and instant intrigue it grabs readers’ attention – and does not let go throughout the entire plot.

Its strongest feature is without doubt the expertly crafted clues, which will appeal to all logical thinkers. The setting, historically accurate and vivid creates a flawless backdrop to the events without dominating the scenes. Description of the London streets is kept to a minimum, only mentioned a handful of times throughout the book, and yet from the information we are given, an image of London can be created in the reader’s mind.

Although this is a dark and serious book, there are moments of humour – usually provided by Christopher’s best friend Tom who is often dragged along on Christopher’s dangerous ‘schemes’. Scenes with Tom’s younger sisters also offer a momentary respite from the daring and risky incidents, which perfectly paces the book.

All of these selling points of The Blackthorn Key would be by no means as compelling without the impeccable writing style of Kevin Sands; clear, concise yet eloquent and completely seamless, his execution of the plot is one of the best I have ever come across.

Whilst this is an otherwise flawless book, the plot-driven nature means that the characters lose airtime and depth; I found that they were of the quality expected as a side-character. Although in any other novel, this would likely have meant that I would rate the book lower, in The Blackthorn Key the story did not suffer. Leaving the characters for development later in the series allowed the plot the space to become an intricate web of clues and underground discoveries without having to contend with character backstories. Another weakness worth noting is the lack of major twists in the plot; save for an extreme plot twist near the chaotic ending of the novel, the clues Christopher follows are mostly a steady trail in one direction. The redeeming features of this, however, are the impressive discoveries made along the way.

Sensitivity Warning: dark and graphic injuries/deaths.

By Isabella (age 14)