As dusk approaches, the good people of Toll-by-day slam shut their doors and tremble. New openings appear in the shadows, a black carriage rumbles through the streets and a wicked underworld emerges. It is time to discover Toll-by-Night – and it's a very different place.
Black-eyed orphan Mosca Mye and conman Eponymous Clent are down on their luck. Again. So when they find themselves embroiled in a daring kidnap plot, the whiff of money is too tempting to resist. Before she knows it, Mosca is trapped in Toll's deadly night city on a mission to rescue a girl she can't stand with only a midwife, a murderous goose and a war-crazed dandy knight to help her…
Twilight Robbery is the long awaited sequel to Fly by Night.
People don't rave about Frances Hardinge enough as far as I'm concerned, I loved this book! Fly by Night all those years ago was brilliant, Verdigris Deep wasn't as brilliant but also really good, but Twilight Robbery is wonderful.
Hardinge is a little over fond of slightly pretentious phrasing, but she is an Oxford graduate so I guess she can't help it...part of the premise is that the two main characters are clever and educated while surrounded by uneducated people so it works. I thought it started a little bit slowly but the idea of Toll-by-Night and Toll-by-Day is amazing and brilliantly executed, and the story is perfectly plotted. I didn't want it to finish but was very satisfied with the way it did!
By far my favourite on the Carnegie 2011 long-list so far.
Wow! This sounds as awesome as I'd hoped it would be. I have to say, I love the title and the cover better than the title "Fly Trap" and that cover. I don't know why they had to change it for the US.
ReplyDeleteI love Frances Hardinge and her pretentious phrasing! I fully agree that not enough people rave about her.
(I found your blog on a Frances Hardinge Google search, by the way.)