Gideon the Cutpurse

July 24, 2006
Doyle, a Shakespearean actor, brings something of his classical training to his reading of Buckley-Archer's historical novel. His steely authority is tempered, however, with a touch of Cockney cheek, alternating moments of Queen's-English rigor with colorful manglings of pronunciation and linguistic stress. Doyle is not above resorting to sound effects, either, providing the hideous screams of protagonist Peter Schock after the boy suffers a shocking surprise. The surprise is that Peter and his friend Kate have been transported via a misbegotten scientific experiment from the 18th to the 21st century, and the duo spends the rest of the story trying to figure out how they got there and how to return home. Doyle alternates between a deep, steady announcer's voice for the tale's narration, and a tangier, livelier series of voices for the dialogue. While he may sound more secure with the former, it is the latter that gives this audiobook its verve. Ages 10-up.

June 19, 2006
Two 21st-century British children visiting a science lab disappear into thin air and turn up in the English countryside in 1763, where they are befriended by the title character, a reformed thief. The "anti-gravity machine" that inexplicably facilitates Kate and Peter's time travel is immediately stolen by a villainous character known as the "Tar Man," and a rather leisurely chase to retrieve it ensues. The narrative alternates between Gideon and the kids' 18th-century journey to London, which features numerous scrapes with murderous footpads and highwaymen, and present-day events involving much parental hand-wringing, a police investigation and a media frenzy. Debut author Buckley-Archer brings the England of King George III to life with ample (and often gruesome) period detail. (Served a slab of Stilton at a chop house, Peter notices "half a dozen weevils which shared the plate.") The characters, however, seem curiously flat. Kate is defined by her glossy red hair and, constrained by her period garb and convention, never gets to do much; Peter is even less distinct. The author constructs their relationship as antagonistic (they have only just met when the story opens), making for lots of petty bickering of the kind heard on a long car ride with squabbling siblings. Readers may find Gideon, having lost nine of 10 family members to scarlet fever, a sympathetic figure, but he is somewhat idealized. After a rather lengthy run-up, this first volume in a planned trilogy ends in a dramatic cliff-hanger. Ages 10-up.

July 3, 2006
Two 21st-century British children visiting a science lab disappear into thin air and turn up in the English countryside in 1763, where they are befriended by the title character, a reformed thief. The "anti-gravity machine" that inexplicably facilitates Kate and Peter's time travel is immediately stolen by a villainous character known as the "Tar Man," and a rather leisurely chase to retrieve it ensues. The narrative alternates between Gideon and the kids' 18th-century journey to London, which features numerous scrapes with murderous footpads and highwaymen, and present-day events involving much parental hand-wringing, a police investigation and a media frenzy. Debut author Buckley-Archer brings the England of King George III to life with ample (and often gruesome) period detail. (Served a slab of Stilton at a chop house, Peter notices "half a dozen weevils which shared the plate.") The characters, however, seem curiously flat. Kate is defined by her glossy red hair and, constrained by her period garb and convention, never gets to do much; Peter is even less distinct. The author constructs their relationship as antagonistic (they have only just met when the story opens), making for lots of petty bickering of the kind heard on a long car ride with squabbling siblings. Readers may find Gideon, having lost nine of 10 family members to scarlet fever, a sympathetic figure, but he is somewhat idealized. After a rather lengthy run-up, this first volume in a planned trilogy ends in a dramatic cliff-hanger. Ages 10-up.