The fantasy worldbuilding of this is wonderful; I love elemental magic and meeting the versions of that in this book as they’re all very distinctive, and I hope we learn more about the groups we didn’t see so much of in this installment which was largely focused on the water element Chads. Iconic monuments take on unexpected shape: Hyde Park gives up ghosts; the Serpentine really snaaaaaakes. There was a line early on about how the dragons “were not forgiven for the unfortunate incident of 1666.

This book (and its characters) focuses strongly on the inequality of eighteenth-century society, and I was glad to see it.Author of the well-loved YA novel Eight Pieces of Silva (2021, Hachette) and Children’s and YA Jhalak Prize winner Patrice Lawrence offers readers a new, middle grade fiction series published by Scholastic UK– The Elemental Detectives. The climax of this was super enthralling too, and I’m most definitely going to be continuing in the series.

Their differing perspectives, where both are black but only one was a slave, made for some really interesting character dynamics and explained a lot about their different world views. When he helps Marisee escape some attacking sleepers, he discovers a world of Elemental spirits, serpents in the Serpentine and ghosts in Hyde Park. As the reader is drawn into the sights and smells of this otherworldly London with Lawrence’s superb world-building craft, we soon learn that a fog of yellow sickness has taken hold across the city, sending all who fall foul into a deep sleep. This book is very similar to Lair of Dreams, so fans of that book should enjoy seeing the action moved across the Atlantic and further into the past.

Plus, the 'finish' is wonderful: an illustrated map of London landmarks leads you in; backnotes include: factual sources; a breakdown of those Elements; a note on the real Jonathan Strong; a pickle of a riddle. a genuinely creepy villain in the form of a rusty-round the-edges Bo Peep (steel yourself for her lullaby earworm); Turnbell-of-Turnbill-Brook performed by a woman in breeches and waistcoat.