The Door That Led to Where

Channeling Leon Garfield or Joan Aiken, perhaps, Gardner (I, Coriander, rev. 11/05; Maggot Moon, rev. 3/13) sets this murder mystery and coming-of-age novel partly in contemporary London and partly in the sordid, conniving underworld of the same city in 1830. In the modern world, AJ Flynn, abused, fatherless, a boy whose friends are other at-risk teens, is amazed to be offered a junior clerk position at a reputable London law firm. While doing some filing, he discovers a key that leads him to the past -- a past in which his name is known, his father was a familiar figure, and there are opaque connections between his new 1830s acquaintances and his contemporary employers. Murder, both now and then; madness, bereavement, forgery, poverty; a cryptic will...Gardner throws it all in, resolving AJ's family issues and finding a welcome place and time for AJ's misfit friends as well. Gardner's prose, peppered with colorful metaphors and period language, moves the plot along quickly, sketching out a pungent, vivid world in both present and past. deirdre f. baker

In contemporary London, AJ Flynn, working as a junior clerk at a law firm, discovers a key that leads him to the past--a past in which there are opaque connections between his 1830s acquaintances and his contemporary employers. Murder, madness, forgery, poverty...it's all here. Gardner's prose, peppered with colorful metaphors and period language, moves the plot along quickly.