'Roald Dahl by way of Charles Dickens' - Vox.com 'Astonishing and inventive, it calls out to be read' - The Sunday Times 'Dark and wildly original urban fantasy tale' - New York Times 'All of Edward Carey's work is profound and delightful' - Max Porter 'If this were music, Carey would be Eric Satie. If it were film, he would be Tim Burton.' - Newsday The ghastly climax to the gothic Iremonger trilogy The dirt town of Foulsham has been destroyed, its ashes still smoldering. Darkness lies heavily over the city, the sun has not come up for days. Inside the houses throughout the capital, ordinary objects have begun to move. Strange new people run through the darkened streets. There are rumours of a terrible contagion. From the richest mansion to the poorest slum people have disappeared. The police have been instructed to carry arms. And rats, there are rats everywhere. Someone has stolen a certain plug. Someone is lighting a certain box of matches. All will come tumbling down. The Iremongers have come to London.

 

 

This book is part of a book series called The Iremonger Trilogy .

This book has been graded for interest at 13-15 years.

There are 512 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2016 by Hot Key Books .

Edward Carey is a playwright, novelist and illustrator. He has worked for the theatre in London, Lithuania and Romania and with a shadow puppet master in Malaysia. He has written two illustrated novels for adults, OBSERVATORY MANSIONS and ALVA & IRVA, both translated into many different languages. He lives in Austin, Texas, where he wrote the Iremonger Trilogy because he missed feeling cold and gloomy.