IRONHAND

A rousing middle volume makes up for the flaws in its predecessor, Stoneheart (2007). Edie and George seek their friend the Gunner, a World War I memorial statue who can leave his plinth anytime except midnight. The vile Walker, roaming the earth immortally, has kidnapped him. As George and Edie set out, a gargoyle snatches George. After being tossed and battered in the air, George evades multitudes of taints (malevolent creature statues) and confronts a knight before learning that he must fight three duels. Edie needs help and information, but an unexpected betrayal leads her to a past London where she “glinted” her murder at the Walker’s hands. She fights fiercely, but the scene of the Walker drowning her in the Thames plays out horrifyingly just as she foresaw from the present. Underground, the steady Gunner scrapes his way to safety, gently gathering the heart stones that the Walker stole from girls and women he slaughtered. George spends one wrenching hour in a WWI battle. Where the first volume’s prose was dry, Ironhand’s is crisp. Fast-paced, serious and gruffly tender. (Fantasy. 10-13)