Barnaby Grimes 4 – Phantom of Blood Alley

Paul Stewart's Phantom of Blood Alley is a gaslit mystery for 9 year olds about a rooftop-running errand boy tailing a man who really doesn't want to be followed.

What happens

Barnaby Grimes delivers things for a living, as one of the city's tick-tock lads. He gets about by highstacking, which means running and leaping across the rooftops. He tells you the story himself and he's great company.

This is the fourth Barnaby Grimes book, but it explains everything as it goes, so nobody's lost if they start here.

This time he's hired by Clarissa Oliphant, a retired duelling governess. Yes, a governess whose job was fighting duels for her rich young pupils! Her younger brother Laurence has gone very secretive. He's given up his job, his face has been burned in an accident he won't talk about, and he vanishes into the city every day.

Laurence is hooked on the new craze for photographs. Barnaby follows him over the rooftops to a padlocked lock-up in Blood Alley, the worst street in the grimiest part of town. A huge guard dog nearly has his nose off. Then a face appears at the window that barely looks human. Worse, it sees him.

By the next morning there's a police carriage outside that lock-up and an inspector calling it a murder scene. And Barnaby is right in the middle of it.

Barnaby's voice is the best bit. He's quick and a bit cocky, and his rooftop moves all have names (the Peabody Roll, the Drainpipe Sluice). Between the scares he rescues a very spoilt cat using his hat. And his mate Will Farmer crashes into a lamppost on a homemade wheelboard (basically a skateboard made from a piano lid and pram wheels).

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This one gets properly gruesome. It opens with Barnaby tied up while someone pushes his face towards a bubbling vat. The body in the lock-up is described in grisly detail too, with its face burned away by chemicals and a sword through its chest. Early on, Laurence trips a stranger into the road on purpose and a cart driver is left bleeding.

If your reader is easily spooked or doesn't like horror, this probably isn't one for them yet. But for a child who loves being scared silly and wants a puzzle to chew over, there's lots here to enjoy.

What to read next

For more of Barnaby running the rooftops, go back to the very first Barnaby Grimes book, Curse of the Night Wolf.