Mr. Timothy

According to novelist Louis Bayard, frail Tiny Tim was a survivor and a far more interesting character than Dickens let on. In MR. TIMOTHY, his delightful and atmospheric novel set in 1860s London, Bayard gives the adult Tim a limp, colorful compatriots, and a mystery to solve: Who is branding and killing homeless little girls? Mark Honan reads this first-person narrative beautifully. His Tim is plucky and engaging, a young man rising above the station into which he was born. (The difference between Tim's accent and his older brother's is clever and telling.) Tim's companions include an old boatman, a streetwise homeless boy, an Italian girl, and some London prostitutes--all read so believably that the scene in one's headphones passes before one's eyes. Be careful when driving. Otherwise, enjoy. This is a pleasure. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Starred review from September 15, 2003
Bayard's first two novels (Fool's Errand; Endangered Species) were contemporary romantic comedies, a far cry from his third, an audacious and triumphant entertainment that imagines the post–Christmas Carol life of Tiny Tim, transformed from an iconic representation of innocent suffering ("the iron brace was bought by a salvager long ago, and the crutch went for kindling") into a fully realized young adult struggling to find his place in a cruel world. Having lost his parents and become estranged from his remaining family as well from as reformed Ebenezer Scrooge, Mr. Timothy Cratchit has found a niche in a brothel as the tutor to its madam. Haunted by his failure to connect with his father, as well as by his father's ghost, Timothy has developed a thick skin to guard against the oppressive misery endemic to 1860s London. His defenses are penetrated when he encounters Philomela, a 10-year-old waif who has been mysteriously abused. With the assistance of a singing street urchin called Colin the Melodious and a maimed retired seafarer, he pursues the source of her torment and its connection with another child whose branded body was dumped in an obscure alley. The quest becomes more quixotic when evidence points to the aristocracy, abetted by a corrupt police force, but with Philomela taking an active role, the quartet narrow in on their target. With surprising but plausible twists, and a visceral, bawdy evocation of Victorian London, Bayard has crafted a page-turner of a thriller that is elevated beyond its genre by its endearingly flawed hero for whom nothing human is alien. (Nov.)Forecast:Like Charles Palliser's The Quincunx, this book will be embraced by Dickens devotees and many others as well.Riveting storytelling and the Christmas Carol connection could make it a holiday hit. Five-city author tour.