Twelve Minutes to Midnight

January 15, 2014
As 1899 draws to a close, a savvy young writer of gothic tales becomes embroiled in a perplexing mystery in this first volume of a proposed trilogy. Since inheriting the Penny Dreadful, 13-year-old orphan Penelope Tredwell has "single-handedly acted as the magazine's editor, lead author, and publisher," though she hides her true identity behind the pseudonym Montgomery Flinch. Now the "most celebrated author in Britain," Penelope hires an actor to impersonate Flinch to promote sales. Receiving an urgent plea from the superintendent of Bedlam, the lunatic asylum, for Flinch's assistance, Penelope sees the potential for her next horror story. Masquerading as Flinch's niece, Penelope investigates, intrigued by accounts of patients arising in a trance at 12 minutes to midnight each night to compulsively write delirious, prophetic ramblings. Penelope's investigation leads her to reclusive Lady Cambridge, aka the Spider Lady of South Kensington, whose diabolical plot to control the future threatens to plunge London into madness. Bold and intelligent beyond her years, Penelope pursues Lady Cambridge into London's darkest places, facing gothic horrors greater than any she has written. Edge successfully delivers his own penny dreadful in the riveting style of a Victorian mystery. Original, chilling, atmospheric mystery with a heroine of remarkable mettle. (Historical mystery. 8-12)

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August 1, 2014

Gr 4-7-In Twelve Minutes to Midnight, readers meet Penelope Tredwell, the 13-year-old newspaper heiress and ghostwriter who pens tales of horror and mystery as Montgomery Flinch. She must keep her true identity secret, going so far as to hire an actor to play Montgomery at public appearances. In Shadows of the Silver Screen, a filmmaker wants to transform Penelope's stories into a motion picture. The protagonist soon finds that her terrifying tales are bleeding into reality. An atmospheric and spine-tingling series for middle graders who love old-fashioned mysteries.

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2014
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Thirteen-year-old Penelope Tredwell is the secret author of spine-tingling suspense storiesunder the pen name Montgomery Flinchthat thrill the readers of the 1899 London magazine she inherited from her parents. Her imagination, writing skills, and business management of her deceased parents' pulp monthly are impressive, yet a publicity stunt nearly brings the entire London literary world to a crashing halt after she hires an actor to give a public reading as Flinch. But the stakes rise even higher: after the inmates at Bedlam begin frantic, mysterious automatic writing at 12 minutes to midnight every night, the warden recruits Penelope and the actor posing as Flinch to investigate. The inmates write strange, fractured phrases, such as Sputnik; at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; and the Eagle has landed. Soon, clever Penelope discovers a plot to poison the inmates of Bedlam with spider venom in order to see the future. As if that were not enough, Penelope and Flinch also manage to rescue H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the entire reading public of London from a villainous young widow and scholar of arachnids. Debut author Edge has created an excellent mystery in a league with Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus, Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart, and Eleanor Updale's Montmorency series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)