City of Spies
1780 New York. The British Army is trying to beat the rebel American colonists into submission and restore King George III’s rightful rule, as ordained by God. Our hero, Aiden Blaise, is the fifteen-year-old ward of Mr Rivington, a miserable young man who’s been more or less abandoned by his English father, and dumped in a job as a humble apprentice printer. Something’s obviously going on – but what? There seem to be secrets everywhere, and some of them are dangerous. Poor naïve Aiden can’t seem to keep out of trouble – he doesn’t want to be caught with some of the new counterfeit rebel bank notes, for example… However, the quick-witted Elizabeth, Mr Rivington’s feisty daughter, seems to know what is going on… but whose side is she on? Could she be supporting the new self-named Americans or is she as mixed up as he is? Then Aiden gets arrested, and there’s a real risk that he could be hanged as a rebel…
I have to be honest and say that I found it difficult to work out what the hell was going on in City of Spies. I had to read it three or four times before it made sense – and by that time, I was thoroughly fed up with it.
I enjoyed the scenes showing how to make ‘invisible’ ink, and the clever way that secret codes could be cracked, but the book as a whole was very bitty, and I disliked the way the reader was constantly being fed a string of lies. Still, Elizabeth, a mere girl, was allowed a meaningful role, and she was respected (eventually) by Aiden and the other boys.
The old adage applies here: if you are 11 plus and like this sort of book, this is the sort of book that you will like.
