The Lost Property Office

October 3, 2016
With his father missing and feared dead, 13-year-old Jack Buckles and his family have traveled to London in search of answers. He finds them with Gwen Kincaid, a 12-year-old clerk at the Lost Property Office, part of “a secret society of detectives that has served the Crown for centuries.” Jack discovers that his father is a member of this Ministry of Trackers, and Jack has tracker abilities, too: he is “hyper-observant” and synesthetic, and his brain can pull memories from minerals. To save his father from an evil Frenchman, Jack and Gwen must find a mysterious jewel called the Ember. Their quest takes them to famous sites throughout London, which is one of few highlights in an otherwise convoluted story that, while creative in concept, suffers from overwriting. Adult author Hannibal (the Nick Baron series) belabors the mystery component of this first book in the Section 13 series; wordy descriptions of the scenes where Jack “sparks” on memories from minerals and Gwen’s repeated ignoring and belittling of Jack’s questions both cause the story to drag. Ages 8–12. Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties.

Discovering that everything he knew--even his name!--was a lie is only the beginning of a very weird day for 13-year-old Jack Buckles. All-American white boy Jack stumbles across his secret heritage as a forbidden 13th generation of top-secret "trackers" with supersensory abilities, operating under the cover of the Lost Property Office. He teams up with Gwen Kincaid, spunky white Ministry of Trackers clerk and detective-in-training, in a mad scramble across past and present London for a mysterious deadly artifact capable of starting a second Great Fire. Hannibal crafts an adventure with brisk pacing but little originality or internal logic. The covert subterranean world of the Elder Ministries is cobbled together from high-tech gimcrackery, steampunk affectations, and coy allusions to British literature both famous and obscure; the clues shaping Jack and Gwen's quest are mostly tourist-y factoids. Jack is the stereotypical "chosen one" hero; even untrained, his "neuroscientific" gifts might as well be magical. Clever and competent Gwen is too often reduced to "bouncing freckles" and expository infodumping (usually withholding crucial details to manufacture artificial suspense), while Jack always fights just a bit better and solves the most important riddles. The villain is a cartoon of a sinister Frenchman; the rest of (apparently all-white) London is populated by cliches: tea-sipping constables, starchy bureaucrats, and h-dropping oafs. Mindless entertainment. (Adventure. 11-14) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2016

Gr 4-7-Thirteen-year-old Jack and his little sister Sadie come to London with their mom in search of their missing dad. The kids stumble upon the Baker Street Branch of the Lost Property Office, managed by a Mrs. Hudson and established by the Ministry of Trackers. It turns out that Dad is really a Tracker, with a supernatural ability to read clues in stone (one that Jack shares) and he's been kidnapped by a mysterious Frenchman called the Clockmaker, who wants Jack to find the magical Ember, which started the Great Fire of 1666. Jack and a young apprentice clerk named Gwen experience a series of wild adventures through time and hidden, magical corners of the city (think "Harry Potter" meets Dr. Who, with steampunk-esque beetle drones). Jack discovers things about his family and their place in history that are beyond anything he could have ever imagined. Jack is originally described as having behaviors that could put him somewhere on the autism spectrum, but he doesn't show those behaviors past the opening chapters of the book. In fact, the characters are the least interesting part of this tale-it's the highly detailed magical world that stands out. Still, the ride is fast and fun. VERDICT Buy where fantasy flies off the shelf.-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library

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