EYRE AFFAIR

Meet Thursday Next, literary detective without equal, fear or boyfriend. There is another 1985 where London's criminal gangs have moved into a lucrative literary market, and Thursday is on the trail of the new crime wave's Mr Big. Acheron Hades has been kidnapping characters from works of fiction and holding them to ransom. Jane Eyre is gone. Missing. Thursday sets out to find a way into the book to repair the damage, but solving crimes against literature isn't easy when you also have to find time to halt the Crimean War, persuade the man you love to marry you, and figure out who really wrote Shakespeare's plays. Literary detection with suckers and biters and a runcible spoon, Martin Chuzzlewit, Thornfield Hall, the death of Marlowe and Shakespeare's curious double life and more literary detection. 373pp. Ages 10-14.