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"Mary Finch and the Thief"
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“She turned, and with a heavy heart, Lady Mary Finch walked away.”
Mary the scullery maid had no idea how a simple errand to purchase treats from the Confectioner to the Elite would end in her life turning into a Penny Dreadful. Like candy from a baby, a thief steals something more precious than the jewelry also taken from Mary’s employer. “Mary Finch and the Thief” cross each other’s path which leads to a case of mistaken identity, as the thief gets away and Mary gets blamed for the burglary when she is found with her employer’s jewelry. However things are not all as they seem when Mary loses her job but Mr. Grimwig mysteriously chooses not to press charges for stealing his wife’s jewelry. This leads Mary to wonder what else the thief could have taken that has the Grimwigs so spooked. Mary is convinced that she must be like Sherlock Holmes, and find the thief so as to clear her name, but little does she know that her dangerous game of junior detective will involve high profile players, scandal, and murder!
Mary the scullery maid had no idea how a simple errand to purchase treats from the Confectioner to the Elite would end in her life turning into a Penny Dreadful. Like candy from a baby, a thief steals something more precious than the jewelry also taken from Mary’s employer. “Mary Finch and the Thief” cross each other’s path which leads to a case of mistaken identity, as the thief gets away and Mary gets blamed for the burglary when she is found with her employer’s jewelry. However things are not all as they seem when Mary loses her job but Mr. Grimwig mysteriously chooses not to press charges for stealing his wife’s jewelry. This leads Mary to wonder what else the thief could have taken that has the Grimwigs so spooked. Mary is convinced that she must be like Sherlock Holmes, and find the thief so as to clear her name, but little does she know that her dangerous game of junior detective will involve high profile players, scandal, and murder!
Readability
The book looks professionally formatted and has minimal errors in the writing. The narrative follows the character of Mary Finch from a close third person point of view. The biggest issue I had with the novel is that I found the story to be quite convoluted, especially since it’s meant for a younger demographic. In that same vein, I think some of the themes seemed a bit heavy for a book that’s considered middle-grade. I think I would be hard-pressed to find a tween that could read this book and relay the story from memory while simultaneously making sense of the plot.
When I say the story is convoluted I don’t mean that it has a complicated premise, because it doesn’t. The premise of the story is pretty straight forward, but it’s the way in which the author gets from point A to point B that’s so convoluted – and that’s due to the egregious use of unnecessary characters. I highlighted thirty nine named characters introduced to the plot, but the majority of which received the bare bones level of characterization, if any at all. I found several characters to be completely irrelevant, like Inspector Lestrade – who was advertised in the blurb as if he plays a major role in the story, but he really doesn’t. His character is more or less redundant, because he is just one of a handful of characters who are in search of the thief (believed to be in cahoots with Mary), but their personal motivations for doing so are never revealed – so it doesn’t really matter.
Introducing the reader to a bunch of characters in a story that’s meant to be in the mystery genre is not automatically a poor decision, because I understand that maybe some characters are meant to serve as a red herring. However, every time an author drops a new name into the plot that usually requires some characterization, which includes crafting a unique personality and motivation that is separate from the main character’s but also serves the story in a relevant way. Every character that serves the plot is essentially opening up a new storyline or thread within the narrative that will need to be resolved at some point, but if the reader doesn’t know what is driving the character then they’re effectively just a glorified plot device.
For instance, Mrs. Grimwig’s three daughters (Leticia, Portia, & Rosamund) could have just been simplified to one child, because the only purpose they served was to send Mary to the candy shop. Other than that, they basically represent one entity “the offspring”, and the same goes for Dot and Sally. I think if either Dot or Sally (they’re interchangeable so it doesn’t matter which one) was alone, then Ella’s subplot could have easily fit into the story by giving Dot/Sally someone to play with, since Archie’s character gets entangled in Mary’s shenanigans.
Creativity
At least the protagonist received a fair amount of characterization. Mary Finch likes reading Penny Dreadfuls, which essentially serves as foreshadowing that sets the tone for the narrative. The story is set in London, but also within the same universe as Sherlock Holmes – making Mary Finch kind of a spin-off attempt of sorts but this book reads more like fan-fic pastiche.
Sherlock Holmes stories and the original characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are in the public domain. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson make cameos, but they aren’t directly involved in the story. Two other characters (Charles Augustus Milverton and Inspector Lestrade) are also shoehorned into the plot, but I had no idea they were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters until I read the author notes at the end of the book. The author states that those characters will appear in subsequent Mary Finch adventures, but without Sherlock Holmes headcanon I couldn’t make heads or tails as to why the author needed to include them in this story except maybe to pay homage.
Jack the Ripper is used as a threat that haunts the peripheral vision of Mary Finch’s storyline and also serves to set the time period in which this tale takes place.
Delivery
I was getting strong early 90’s Lifetime-channel vibes from the shameless use of battered women to make the reader understand who the bad guy is (just in case you didn’t already know). Victimized women is a recurring theme that is seen first with Emma’s character and then again with Mrs. Tupper. The narrative also includes themes of alcohol abuse and infidelity. The “blackmail” in the story is symbolized by literal mail/letters, and the contents is allegedly so damning that a wealthy aristocrat is willing to send hush money. The scandal alludes to darker themes linked to infidelity like bastard children and orphans, which also ties into the world that Mary's character understands as a scullery maid herself.
Female empowerment is a prevalent undertone to the overall narrative. There are numerous instances where Mary passes by the home of Sherlock Holmes and considers asking him for help. Even when one of Mary’s leads ends up getting murdered, the little girl still refuses to ask a grown man for help. She instead decides to put her life and the life of her friend Archie in danger, but to her credit she does acknowledge her error after narrowly escaping death in the end. The feminist themes are made abundantly clear when the story concludes with Mary and friends being introduced to a wealthy aristocrat named Mrs. Grady, who is an advocate for the Women’s Suffrage Committee.
The book looks professionally formatted and has minimal errors in the writing. The narrative follows the character of Mary Finch from a close third person point of view. The biggest issue I had with the novel is that I found the story to be quite convoluted, especially since it’s meant for a younger demographic. In that same vein, I think some of the themes seemed a bit heavy for a book that’s considered middle-grade. I think I would be hard-pressed to find a tween that could read this book and relay the story from memory while simultaneously making sense of the plot.
When I say the story is convoluted I don’t mean that it has a complicated premise, because it doesn’t. The premise of the story is pretty straight forward, but it’s the way in which the author gets from point A to point B that’s so convoluted – and that’s due to the egregious use of unnecessary characters. I highlighted thirty nine named characters introduced to the plot, but the majority of which received the bare bones level of characterization, if any at all. I found several characters to be completely irrelevant, like Inspector Lestrade – who was advertised in the blurb as if he plays a major role in the story, but he really doesn’t. His character is more or less redundant, because he is just one of a handful of characters who are in search of the thief (believed to be in cahoots with Mary), but their personal motivations for doing so are never revealed – so it doesn’t really matter.
Introducing the reader to a bunch of characters in a story that’s meant to be in the mystery genre is not automatically a poor decision, because I understand that maybe some characters are meant to serve as a red herring. However, every time an author drops a new name into the plot that usually requires some characterization, which includes crafting a unique personality and motivation that is separate from the main character’s but also serves the story in a relevant way. Every character that serves the plot is essentially opening up a new storyline or thread within the narrative that will need to be resolved at some point, but if the reader doesn’t know what is driving the character then they’re effectively just a glorified plot device.
For instance, Mrs. Grimwig’s three daughters (Leticia, Portia, & Rosamund) could have just been simplified to one child, because the only purpose they served was to send Mary to the candy shop. Other than that, they basically represent one entity “the offspring”, and the same goes for Dot and Sally. I think if either Dot or Sally (they’re interchangeable so it doesn’t matter which one) was alone, then Ella’s subplot could have easily fit into the story by giving Dot/Sally someone to play with, since Archie’s character gets entangled in Mary’s shenanigans.
Creativity
At least the protagonist received a fair amount of characterization. Mary Finch likes reading Penny Dreadfuls, which essentially serves as foreshadowing that sets the tone for the narrative. The story is set in London, but also within the same universe as Sherlock Holmes – making Mary Finch kind of a spin-off attempt of sorts but this book reads more like fan-fic pastiche.
Sherlock Holmes stories and the original characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are in the public domain. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson make cameos, but they aren’t directly involved in the story. Two other characters (Charles Augustus Milverton and Inspector Lestrade) are also shoehorned into the plot, but I had no idea they were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters until I read the author notes at the end of the book. The author states that those characters will appear in subsequent Mary Finch adventures, but without Sherlock Holmes headcanon I couldn’t make heads or tails as to why the author needed to include them in this story except maybe to pay homage.
Jack the Ripper is used as a threat that haunts the peripheral vision of Mary Finch’s storyline and also serves to set the time period in which this tale takes place.
Delivery
I was getting strong early 90’s Lifetime-channel vibes from the shameless use of battered women to make the reader understand who the bad guy is (just in case you didn’t already know). Victimized women is a recurring theme that is seen first with Emma’s character and then again with Mrs. Tupper. The narrative also includes themes of alcohol abuse and infidelity. The “blackmail” in the story is symbolized by literal mail/letters, and the contents is allegedly so damning that a wealthy aristocrat is willing to send hush money. The scandal alludes to darker themes linked to infidelity like bastard children and orphans, which also ties into the world that Mary's character understands as a scullery maid herself.
Female empowerment is a prevalent undertone to the overall narrative. There are numerous instances where Mary passes by the home of Sherlock Holmes and considers asking him for help. Even when one of Mary’s leads ends up getting murdered, the little girl still refuses to ask a grown man for help. She instead decides to put her life and the life of her friend Archie in danger, but to her credit she does acknowledge her error after narrowly escaping death in the end. The feminist themes are made abundantly clear when the story concludes with Mary and friends being introduced to a wealthy aristocrat named Mrs. Grady, who is an advocate for the Women’s Suffrage Committee.
#LFLR Indie Rating: 4.5/10
“Mary Finch and the Thief” is a winner of The Wishing Shelf book award, which appears to be a pay-to-play competition that includes children from the book’s target age range as judges. In total, there are three sequels and a prequel in the Mary Finch series. Author S.S. Saywack has also written two other children’s novels and released two books for a series of English ghost stories.
“Mary Finch and the Thief” is a winner of The Wishing Shelf book award, which appears to be a pay-to-play competition that includes children from the book’s target age range as judges. In total, there are three sequels and a prequel in the Mary Finch series. Author S.S. Saywack has also written two other children’s novels and released two books for a series of English ghost stories.
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