Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Faceless Fiend, The: Being the Tale of a Criminal Mastermind, His Masked Minions
Illustrator: Bill Slavin
Fiction Series
For ages 9 to 12
Kids Can Press, 2007 ISBN: 1554531306
Having escaped from the dreadful St. Grimelda’s School for Young ladies, Emmaline and her friend Princess Purnah now have a comfortable, though somewhat odd, home with Emmaline’s Aunt Lucy. An eccentric American professor is their tutor, and they share their adventures with Robert “Rubberbones” Burns, a local boy who appears to be indestructible.
Quite without warning, the children’s lives are suddenly turned upside down. A sinister faceless man, the Faceless Fiend, arrives in the town near Aunt Lucy’s house, and it soon becomes clear that he has decidedly bad intentions. In short he plans on kidnapping Princess Purnah. Desperately Aunt Lucy, her companion Lal Singh, the professor, Rubberbones, and Emmaline try to keep the princess of out of the clutches of her enemies. Using a disguise, a flight on a kite, a bomb, and many other methods, the princesses’ friends do their best to protect her – without much success.
Packed with humor of all kinds, this hilarious, boisterous, and often deliciously ridiculous adventure will delight readers who read the first book in this series. Readers will never know what to expect, and they will have to stay alert to keep up with Emmaline and her decidedly peculiar friends.
