The Elemental Detectives
A sleeping sickness has fallen across London, and the city’s elementals – spirits of Air, Water, Fire and Earth – worry that they will be blamed (again) by the ‘Solid human folk’ for the catastrophe. Marisee Blackwell’s grandmother is Keeper of the Wells of London, human guardian of the Water elementals; but as the city succumbs to sleep and maddened sleepwalkers, Marisee realises that her grandmother is also protecting something very special: the ancient Freedom of London. When her grandmother disappears, both friends and enemies want to find her. Marisee sets out to find her first and to uncover the culprit causing the sleeping sickness. In this quest, she enlists the help of a new friend, Robert Strong – an enslaved boy imported from a Barbados cocoa plantation to be a servant to an aristocratic family. Robert and Marisee share the same ‘brown skin’ but the difference between them is a potential rift: Marisee is free but Robert was born into slavery. As the sickness sends Londoners into a dream world rich with their deepest desires – warmth, food, or the presence of a lost loved one – the children discover the sleepers are being controlled by a mysterious Shepherdess. When she lures Robert with dream visions of the brother he lost to his slave owner’s cruelty, his commitment to Marisee and to saving the Freedom of London is tested.
This is tight and persuasive world building; but pace is lost between the first and final acts. I would also refer young readers to the ‘Know your Elementals’ back section before they begin, as they may find the opening chapters confusingly crowded with Elemental backstories. But Lawrence does conjure tempting dreamscapes and genuinely frightening spirits as she explores themes of freedom, courage and the loss of loved ones.
