...
Show More
4.5 stars
Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book
Cat Royal Adventures #3
Den of Thieves
...
Show More
Hardcover in very good condition. No jacket. Signed by author on title page. Spine ends are lightly bumped. Binding is intact, contents are clean and clear. AM
416 pages, Hardcover
First published February 5,2007
This edition
- Format
-
416 pages, Hardcover
- Published
-
January 31, 2007 by Egmont Books Ltd
- ISBN
-
9781405228183
- ASIN
-
1405228180
- Language
-
English
About the author
...
Show More
My journey to becoming an author has been a roundabout one, taking in many other careers. I grew up on the edge of Epping Forest and was that dreamy kind of child who was always writing stories. After reading English at Cambridge, I decided to find out as much as I could about the wider world so joined the Foreign Office and served in Poland. My work as a diplomat took me from the high point of town twinning in the Tatra Mountains to the low of inspecting the bottom of a Silesian coal mine.
On leaving Poland, I exchanged diplomacy for academia and took a doctorate in the literature of the English Romantic Period at Oxford. I then joined Oxfam as a lobbyist on conflict issues, campaigning at the UN and with governments to lessen the impact of conflict on civilians living in war zones - a cause about which I still feel very passionate.
Married with three children, I now live in Oxford between two rivers, surrounded by gargoyles, beautiful sandstone buildings and ancient trees.
My first novel, 'The Diamond of Drury Lane', won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2006 and the Nestle Children's Book Prize 2006 (formerly known as the Smarties Prize). I was also chosen by Waterstone's in 2007 as one of their 'Twenty-five authors for the future'. In the US, 'Secret of the Sirens' won the honor book medal of the Green Earth Book Award.
My latest series, which starts with Mel Foster and the Demon Butler, about an intrepid Victorian orphan who lives in a household of monsters, won Bronze in the Primary Teacher awards in 2015. The next part, Mel Foster and the Time Machine, has set the time-dial to arrive in 2016.
On leaving Poland, I exchanged diplomacy for academia and took a doctorate in the literature of the English Romantic Period at Oxford. I then joined Oxfam as a lobbyist on conflict issues, campaigning at the UN and with governments to lessen the impact of conflict on civilians living in war zones - a cause about which I still feel very passionate.
Married with three children, I now live in Oxford between two rivers, surrounded by gargoyles, beautiful sandstone buildings and ancient trees.
My first novel, 'The Diamond of Drury Lane', won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2006 and the Nestle Children's Book Prize 2006 (formerly known as the Smarties Prize). I was also chosen by Waterstone's in 2007 as one of their 'Twenty-five authors for the future'. In the US, 'Secret of the Sirens' won the honor book medal of the Green Earth Book Award.
My latest series, which starts with Mel Foster and the Demon Butler, about an intrepid Victorian orphan who lives in a household of monsters, won Bronze in the Primary Teacher awards in 2015. The next part, Mel Foster and the Time Machine, has set the time-dial to arrive in 2016.
Readers also enjoyed
Community Reviews
Rating(4 / 5.0, 90 votes)
5 stars
31(34%)
4 stars
29(32%)
3 stars
30(33%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
90 reviews All reviews
...
Show More
AUTHOR PROJECT
I love these books. They are so cute and so funny. Cat is a total charmer and the world never stops being fun and interesting, but also never stops changing and keeping you on your toes. I also love how every book has a different combo of the friends, sometimes more Pedro and less Frank, sometimes more Johnny and less Syd, sometimes opposite. It makes it feel episodic and serial, like a good tv series. I love how they interact with history, but at the same time have the rich type of world building that comes from the best kind of fantasy. You get this great "this very well COULD have been happening, we will never know" type of vibe from the underworld type of characters and the theater stuff that gives the world the kind of life you could never get from a well-researched book set in court with real figures. I just love them so much!
I'll repeat what I always say about this series: best recc for reluctant historical-fiction readers because they really read like adventure novels set in any good fantasy world. Greatest ever. And they cover so much without feeling plodding. and the pacing is wicked fast. and the dialogue is great. the frame, the acknowledgement of the reader and the maps and cast lists and glossaries of slang just make it so much fun to explore and shakes things up. and Cat is just the best narrator. I love how smart she is and how well she connects with people, and how she is always taking in what is around her but not always looking into her own feelings all that much. She feels believeable as a fourteen year old because of that. She is such a gem, she's honestly one of my all-time favorite protagonists, up there with Percy Jackson.
Any other things I have to say?
I love these books? I love that I had forgotten pretty much everything that happens, just because they are so wild and complicated (but don't feel that way, but definitely are in retrospect once you start thinking about all the story strains that it follows) that there's no way my brain could fill in what is going to happen next so I was always surprised. I'm sure this book couldn't stand up to close re-reads, but it's been years since I read it so I had quite the good time. I can't wait to finally finish this series due to the magic of Inter library Loan because College is Good.
Also, these remind me in a really positive way of the Finishing School books by Gail Carriger that I just read recently. I actually had that thought while reading Cat Royal, that 'hmm, i might have found myself returning to these a little while ago if I hadn't found the Finishing School books that filled that just same hole'
LOVE
.................21 January 2011.......................
Gave five stars ~~
Frank & Johnny & J-F are just cute and I love them.
I love these books. They are so cute and so funny. Cat is a total charmer and the world never stops being fun and interesting, but also never stops changing and keeping you on your toes. I also love how every book has a different combo of the friends, sometimes more Pedro and less Frank, sometimes more Johnny and less Syd, sometimes opposite. It makes it feel episodic and serial, like a good tv series. I love how they interact with history, but at the same time have the rich type of world building that comes from the best kind of fantasy. You get this great "this very well COULD have been happening, we will never know" type of vibe from the underworld type of characters and the theater stuff that gives the world the kind of life you could never get from a well-researched book set in court with real figures. I just love them so much!
I'll repeat what I always say about this series: best recc for reluctant historical-fiction readers because they really read like adventure novels set in any good fantasy world. Greatest ever. And they cover so much without feeling plodding. and the pacing is wicked fast. and the dialogue is great. the frame, the acknowledgement of the reader and the maps and cast lists and glossaries of slang just make it so much fun to explore and shakes things up. and Cat is just the best narrator. I love how smart she is and how well she connects with people, and how she is always taking in what is around her but not always looking into her own feelings all that much. She feels believeable as a fourteen year old because of that. She is such a gem, she's honestly one of my all-time favorite protagonists, up there with Percy Jackson.
Any other things I have to say?
I love these books? I love that I had forgotten pretty much everything that happens, just because they are so wild and complicated (but don't feel that way, but definitely are in retrospect once you start thinking about all the story strains that it follows) that there's no way my brain could fill in what is going to happen next so I was always surprised. I'm sure this book couldn't stand up to close re-reads, but it's been years since I read it so I had quite the good time. I can't wait to finally finish this series due to the magic of Inter library Loan because College is Good.
Also, these remind me in a really positive way of the Finishing School books by Gail Carriger that I just read recently. I actually had that thought while reading Cat Royal, that 'hmm, i might have found myself returning to these a little while ago if I hadn't found the Finishing School books that filled that just same hole'
LOVE
.................21 January 2011.......................
Gave five stars ~~
Frank & Johnny & J-F are just cute and I love them.
...
Show More
★★★.5
...
Show More
Ah, Cat--always in some kind of jam, this time in a foreign country during a time of revolution! Still ridiculous, still funny, still full of great characters and great adventures. Cat's in pretty serious trouble this time, both in England and in France, and has to do some pretty heavy thinking about who she is and how she wants to live her life. She's definitely more of an insecure, confused teenager in this one than she has been in the first two books, although as mouthy and scrappy as ever, of course. This series is totally addictive though...
P.S. I really hate the American covers for these books. :(
P.S. I really hate the American covers for these books. :(
...
Show More
i love it.
...
Show More
Loved it!! Love J-F!! And of course, Johnny. And Frank. And Syd. I LOVE Syd. I actually can't decide who I like best for Cat. I love them all. And Billy is just scary. But, Johnny married, so that narrows it down a bit. She better end up with one of them!!!!
...
Show More
Another engaging adventure set in revolutionary France.
...
Show More
Cat is sooo funny! Had me in stitches!!!!!
Leave a Review