Vicki Lockwood

Lizzie Brown has escaped the slums of Victorian London and joined Fitzy's Travelling Circus. By accident, she discovers that she has an amazing ability: in a world of charlatans and tricksters, Lizzie may be the only truly clairvoyant palm reader in existence! While reading a client's palm, she sees shocking images of a masked man taking part in a violent robbery. Lizzie musters together her gang of circus children – the Penny Gaff Gang, all with their own amazing talents – to reveal the true identity of The Phantom robber.

We got hold of a promotional copy of this on Children's book day. My daughter and I were both keen to read it after hearing about it from the publisher.
We were not disappointed.
Lizzie is a spirited character. She is a bit reminiscent of a young Eliza Doolittle, with her 'Garn' and other Cockney phrases. {Incidentally, my mother was a genuine Cockney, and Lizzie's voice is pretty accurate.} The characters are all well rounded and realistic. The story is well paced.
It was a good read - one we are thinking of using with our Chatterbooks groups once it is readily available. It will appeal to both girls and boys, and is worth a read for adults too.
Highly recommended… (mere)

When the traveling circus arrives in rural England, Lizzie's palm-reading talent reveals a gang of thieves using a terrifying black hound to rob graves in the local cemetery. Soon Lizzie and her friends find themselves in the middle of a grave-robbing mystery with no end in sight. Now it's up to them to stop the grave robbers before they strike again.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of the first book in this series at Children's Book day. I really enjoyed it, and was pleased that there would be further adventures for the Penny Gaff Gang. So when this story came into the library where I work, I snatched it up. I read it in three days, which for me is good going. Especially since my reading time is often limited to that spent waiting for the bus to work.

Lizzie is a wonderful character. She is down-to-earth and has a good heart. Her friends are all well rounded. They don't just automatically form a Scooby-squad and blindly follow her everywhere. Sometimes, not crossing Ma is more important than going on an adventure with Lizzie, however much they want to support her.

Lockwood doesn't pull punches when giving them obstacles to overcome either. These are not gentle little mysteries. Lizzie has to deal with grave-robbers, and some really nasty seedy aspects of life in 19th century England.

I can't recommend these stories highly enough.… (mere)