Bitten by Books
Netherworld, the exciting first installment in The Chronicles of Diana Furnival, finds our daring heroine in a Hertfordshire graveyard on Halloween, 1879, with the local constable and her cat, Mina. The family of Diana’s deceased husband, William, served as caretakers of a gateway between our world and the Netherworld, a realm of spirits and malevolent beings. With William’s death three years earlier while on a mission, Diana inherited the guardianship. However, rather than just keeping tabs on what comes through the gate, Diana has taken upon herself the task of closing as many of the existing gateways as she possibly can-and counting the present one, has taken care of six of them.
After her most recent success in Hertfordshire, Diana goes to see her friend, Isadora, a medium who sometimes receives messages from the Netherworld. Isadora reports that William may in fact still be alive but trapped, and that she may find answers in a “chapel,” which Diana figures out refers to the Chappell and Sons bookshop she visited shortly after William’s death. Her experience with the mysterious bookstore and its unusual owner leads to Diana’s journey to learn the truth that takes her first to Transylvania, where William died, on a ship to India and China where she meets the young Chinese man, Yi-Kin, who becomes her friend and assistant, and eventually to America.
Morton excels at incorporating legend, folklore, and even religion into a narrative depicting how nightmarish creatures seek to enter our world and wreak their own brand of havoc. Diana’s responsibilities over the year the story takes place change her, and this transformation gets handled in a realistic and believable way. Yi-kin gets developed nicely as the most prominent secondary character, and serves as an able foil for Diana, balancing out her occasional recklessness with cautious bravery. Netherworld’s suspense and pacing will keep the reader both guessing and turning pages. This reviewer looks forward to finding out what adventures and challenges Diana faces next.
Book Stats:
- Paperback: 284 pages
- Publisher: JournalStone (January 10, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1940161088
- ISBN-13: 978-1940161082
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Books in the Chronicles of Diana Furnival in the order they should be read:
Netherworld
