THE DARK TIMES OF NIMBLE NOTTINGHAM

Twelve-year-old Jack “Nim” Nottingham, a rootless foundling, braves the terrors of the London Blitz to take on an ancient, soul-eating shadow.

In his debut, Black conjures a properly terrifying night monster that attracts crawly insects, reptiles, and arachnids in droves and drops like a gooey shroud from above to leave gross boils on its gradually dying victims. Having inadvertently released it in the course of a foraging expedition in a bombed-out London mansion and seen its effect on a swelling number of the stricken, including his beloved dog, Winnie, orphanage escapee Nim desperately sets out to destroy the creature. The author anchors his tale in Nim’s inner journey from stubbornly solitary lone wolf to eventually finding a home amid a circle of friends and allies. Though the Blitz itself remains largely a background threat and isn’t developed to its full potential as a setting, readers will enjoy the focus on the multiple frantic chases and pursuits through hidden tunnels and shattered buildings, as well as developing hints of the beast’s links to historical people and events, which turn out to play crucial roles in the tense climax. The cast, mostly composed of gangs of orphaned children, reads as white.

Strong on action and punctuated with moments of sharply felt terror.