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Summary
Summary
Sally Lockhart, trying to put her troubled past behind her after her fiance's death, has settled into a comfortable life with her daughter, Harriet, her career, and her London friends. But her world comes crashing down around her when a complete stranger claims to be both her husband and Harriet's father, casting doubt on her spotless reputation. Seeking the answers to this terrible dilemma, Sally realizes with growing horror that there is a guiding hand behind all this deceit; someone who hates her so passionately that he has devoted years to bringing about her ruin. She has no choice but to escape with her child into the crime-ridden slums of London's East End. Suddenly it isn't only Sally's reputation that is in danger."
Author Notes
Philip Pullman was born in Norwich on October 19, 1946. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English. He taught at various Oxford middle schools and at Westminster College for eight years. He is the author of many acclaimed novels, plays, and picture books for readers of all ages. His first book, Count Karlstein, was published in 1982. His other books include: The Firework-Maker's Daughter; I Was a Rat!; Clockwork or All Wound Up; and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. He is also the author of the Sally Lockhart series and the His Dark Materials Trilogy. He is the author of The Book of Dust, volume 1. He has received numerous awards including the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Fiction Award for Northern Lights (The Golden Compass), the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for The Amber Spyglass, the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature in 2002, and the Astrid Lindgren Award in 2005.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The conclusion to Pullman's dramatic trilogy ( The Ruby in the Smoke ; Shadow in the North ) finds Sally Lockhart searching London's slums for the source of her ruination. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
The plot in this third Sally Lockhart adventure centers on the disenfranchised -- women, Jews, and the desperately poor -- and their struggle in the face of class-based greed and corruption. Sally, now a mother and a partner in a thriving business, is threatened by a carefully orchestrated plot involving her child, her home, her work, and ultimately her entire sense of self. Identity theft seems like a modern phenomenon, but this book, set in Victorian London, is as chilling as any contemporary urban tale. Narrator Lesser continues his outstanding performance from the first two volumes. His portrayal of Sally as she transits from bewilderment to anger to frantic fear to avenging rage is masterful; the laconic tones of the Tzaddik -- Sally's nemesis -- and his unctuous servant are sublimely evil; and Lesser even manages an entirely credible portrayal of two-year-old Harriet. This one will leave listeners breathless with trepidation. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 8-12. In a rousing sequel to The Ruby in the Smoke [BKL Mr 1 87] and The Shadow in the North [BKL Ap 1 88], Victorian heroine Sally Lockhart finds herself enmeshed in a maelstrom of evil. Unlike most heroines of the day, Sally is an independent businesswoman, an unmarried woman living comfortably with her two-year-old daughter, Harriet. Then Sally's life begins to unravel. Suddenly, a stranger emerges claiming to be her husband and the father of her daughter. As his web tightens around her and the loss of everything she holds dear becomes a possibility, Sally realizes there is a guiding hand behind all this: a man who hates her so passionately he has spent years carefully charting a plan to ruin her. But who is he? As with his other books, Pullman provides a suspenseful, textured mystery. Especially fine is his use of detail--nineteenth-century London comes alive here. Remarkable, too, is the way Pullman interweaves a subplot about Jewish immigration and the conditions of the lower classes, topics that at first blush might seem to have little appeal to young adults--but not the way Pullman writes them. Though the story could have used some tightening, those who have enjoyed Sally's adventures before, as well as those new to the series, will find this a fascinating read, pulsing with life. ~--Ilene Cooper
School Library Journal Review
Pullman is fast becoming a modern-day Charles Dickens for young adults. The setting (Victorian London) is the same; the strong eye for characters large and small is there, as are the sometimes brooding atmosphere, the social conscience, the ability to spin plot within plot against a large landscape, and the occasional editorial comment. These last are not intrusive; the author's voice is that of a friend, filling in details in a story he has witnessed, not wanting readers to miss a thing. Sally Lockhart, first met in Ruby in the Smoke (1987) and Shadow in the North (1988, both Knopf), is now a young woman, left alone with a toddler since the death of her lover, Frederick Garland. Nothing prepares her for the shock of receiving a summons from a man she has never even heard of, suing her for divorce and the custody of her beloved Harriet. Two other figures emerge: Daniel Goldberg, a Jewish slum radical with a violent past; and the ironically titled Tzaddik (saint), who preys on helpless European Jewish immigrants. The Tiger in the Well is the story of their converging paths, as Sally struggles against the net closing around her and seeks to find out who is persecuting her and why. The writing style is lively and direct, and there's lots of action. While Sally's story is for mature readers, it is never sordid or sensational. This is a suspense novel with a conscience, and a most enjoyable one. --Barbara Hutcheson, Greater Victoria Public Library, B.C., Canada (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Readers of the series begun with The Ruby in the Smoke (1987) and The Shadow in the North (1988) will know that the idyllic scene that opens this sequel--feisty Sally, content among her friends with her daughter Harriet, fathered by the still-mourned Frederick--won't last, as indeed it doesn't. Suddenly, a stranger claiming to be Sally's husband demands custody of Harriet, and (with the help of Victorian law, which assigned all property to the husband) seizes her home and all her assets. Sally's flight from the authorities parallels the perils encountered by Jewish immigrants, preyed upon by the villains of London's underworld. As the overlapping elements of these two plots finally come together, Sally unearths the sources of her present troubles and finds the means (a newly awakened social conscience plus a worthy man) to a more solid future happiness. With its several themes and snarl of politics, this is almost overlong, but readers, like Sally, will be ""enlightened"" with revelations that reverberate beyond the final page. A skillfully plotted, entertaining chase. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
