When an obscure, slimy, flesh-colored pouch is delivered to Pellinore Warthrop’s door and renders the deliverer into a bloody, pulpy zombie-like mess, the Monstrumologist has but one course of action open to him.
He leaves his apprentice, the steadfast, loyal, brave Will Henry, in pursuit of the sender, none other than Jack Kearns, who readers will recognize as one of the world’s most famous serial killers. Word on the street reveals that the strange pouch is a nidus, created by the crème de la crème of all monsters, the magnificum that draws human prey up into the sky, shreds it, then drenches the land below with a rain of blood. Through a series of events that involve murder, romance and Arthur Conan Doyle, Will Henry finds his way to London and Pellinore, and the two embark on a journey to an island off the coast of Africa to find the famed monster. Articulately literary, horrifically grotesque and mind-bendingly complex, Yancey’s trilogy conclusion might be the best of the Monstrumologist trilogy. His 19th-century dialogue and descriptions run even smoother than the previous two titles, and his characters have grown deeply complex.
He deftly blurs lines between science and the supernatural, and what results is a long, dark-night-of-the-soul journey for both Will Henry and Pellinore that is certain to turn the hearts and the stomachs of every reader who dares open its pages. (Horror. 14 & up)
