2018; 288 pages. Book 2 (out of 4) in the “Mission Clockwork” series. New Author? : No. Genres : Steampunk; Young Adult & Teen; Action-Intrigue. Overall Rating : 8½*/10.
Matthew Wyle is a covert British intelligence
agent based in New York City during the Victorian Era. He’s been monitoring French agents there, and
he’s just stumbled onto something strange.
Unfortunately, it’s in code.
VSVYWBT KEUW 6035236. Grand Poisson 6035236.
Hmm. Those numbers and uppercase letters could
mean anything, but “grand poisson” is
French for “big fish”. Something
about a whale maybe? But that seems a
bit far-fetched.
Well, he’d better let his
London-based boss, Mr. Socrates, know of his discovery. Maybe he can crack the code.
Alas, two strong hands have
just closed tightly around his throat and a voice out of nowhere says, “Ah,
that is the information I’ve been trying to decode. What do the numbers mean? Tell me!”
Those are the last words
Matthew Wyle will hear in his life.
What’s To Like...
The Dark Deeps
is book 2 in Arthur Slade’s Mission Clockwork
series. I’ve read the first book, Mission Clockwork; it is reviewed here. The hunchback Modo has now completed his training to be an
agent for Mr. Socrates, even though he is still a teenager. His shape-shifting skills will be put to the
test on this current assignment, as he’ll be posing as part of a young married
couple alongside his fellow teenaged agent, Octavia Milkweed. At least they get to go on a cruise.
I liked the inclusion of
foreign language phrases in the text.
There were snippets of French, Latin,
and what I presume was Catalan. The mention of penny dreadfuls made me
chuckle. And being a chemist by trade, I
loved the inclusion of the Oxygen-creating reaction involving Manganese Dioxide
and Potassium Chlorate. Does that sound
nerdish? Well, it enables humans to
breathe underwater.
The storyline has a very “Jules Verne” feel to it; the book’s title and
cover image confirm this. It is not a
spoiler to say that both our protagonists will be spending a lot of time beneath
the sea. Add to our two protagonists a ship’s captain
who’s both idealistic and fatalistic, a French spy who’s both shapely and
pragmatic, and a dude named Griff who nobody is real sure about; and you end up
with an extremely fascinating tale.
The ending manages to be both
death-defyingly exciting and predictably logical at the same time, which is not
a criticism. Both the good guys and the
baddies get their just desserts, and since this is a teen-YA book, it’s mostly
done without any gore. All the plotlines
are tied up, and although there’s room for a sequel (how
can you be certain someone is truly dead if no bodies are recovered?),
I’m predicting that Book 3 will be a completely new setting for Modo and
Octavia.
Kewlest New Word ...
Dummacker (n.) : a knowing or acute person. (British slang)
Others: Dulse (n.);
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 77 ratings
and 29 reviews.
Goodreads: 3.84*/5,
based on 1,111
ratings and 137 reviews.
Excerpts...
“Now, where exactly are we supposed to
go?” She sat at the mahogany table, and
looked down at the carved map.
“Assuming this is accurately carved, it’s
right here!” He tapped on a point about
an inch below Iceland.
“Sounds dreary and cold; good thing we get
paid such riches to do this job.”
“You get paid?”
“Mr. Socrates said he is setting aside a
fund for my retirement. I assume he has
done the same for you.”
“I didn’t know we could retire.” (pg. 62)
“Ah, Mademoiselle Brunet.” Captain
Monturiol said. “Good morning.” She sounded pleasant enough, but Colette
would not give her the benefit of a smile.
“Comrade Girona and I will help you into your aquasuit.” The two women
removed a suit from hooks and shelves along the wall. Then the captain stopped to study Colette’s
face. “You have a mind like an oyster,
did you know that?”
“What do you mean?” Colette replied.
“It is closed. But I know there are pearls inside. I eagerly await the opening of your mind
today.” (pg. 120)
Kindle Details…
The
Dark Deeps sells for $2.99 right now at Amazon. The other three books in the series cost
either $2.99 or $3.99. Arthur Slade has several other series for
your Kindle. The e-books in those are
generally in the $0.99-$4.99 price range.
“I don’t cough,”
she said. “I expel air daintily.” (pg. 57)
Finding things to quibble
about was difficult. As was true for the
first book, there is zero cussing in The Dark Deeps. Ditto for adult situations, although I
wouldn’t be surprised if some affection eventually develops between Modo and
Octavia.
The book is written in
“Canadian”, which means us Yankee readers will occasionally run into some odd
spellings, such as marvellous, tonnes, centred,
and defence. Interestingly, both centimetres and meters
were encountered, which seemed inconsistent.
The editing is topnotch; I only spotted one typo—a capitalized “Stopped” that should have been the lowercase “stopped”.
I'll blame the printer for that.
But enough of the quibbling. The Dark Deeps was a page-turner for
me, despite it being in labeled a “Teen and
Young Adult” book. Yes, it is
clean enough for kids. Yes, it’s fast-paced,
and filled with lots of action-intrigue, a YA requirement.
But adults will enjoy it just as much, because skilled authors are capable of accomplishing that.
8½ Stars. One last thing. The Latin phrase in The Dark Deeps was “Plus Intra Plus Extra”, which Modo translates as “The Deeper The Better”. Really?! My Latin skills suck.
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