Game of Secrets
Game of Secrets
Locals and customers cower in the market, screams frozen on their faces. They crouch behind carts. A surge goes to my muscles and somehow I know-I just know-I can do impossible things. I am not thinking. I am pure rage. A deep burning takes hold of my bones.
I reach Kit’s murderer in a heartbeat. Impossibly fast. Before he can fire his pistol again, I punch forward, catching him square in the throat. His eyes pop wide. I chop the hand that holds the gun and it skitters away on the ground. He staggers. I punch again, smashing his nose, and blood spurts everywhere. I kick at his knees, sending him to the ground. I don’t know what I’m doing, or how I’m doing it, only that it’s coming from somewhere deep inside.
Everything around me is slow, like it’s moving through water. Sliding like molasses. But I am a spark. Fire. Lightning.
I hear the report of a gun-a dull, low rumble, not the sharp crack it should be-and I have time to spin. The bullet tears from the footman’s weapon in a plume of smoke. But I don’t feel the sharp agony of the shot. Instead, I see the bullet as it comes toward me. It moves through the air trailing a spiraling smoke wisp behind it like a comet. I slide out of the way, ducking easily underneath it.
Felicity Cole, 16, is the orphaned daughter of Greek immigrants in Victorian era London. Her hard life is made more difficult in that she keeps a closely guarded secret. Her young brother, Nate, is one of the Tainted – people who possess special physical or psychic abilities. Felicity spends her days peddling flowers on the street in an effort to put food on the table for them both. One day, a shadowy group of men appear, and the leader begins taking photographs of Felicity and the other street vendors. When her boyfriend Kit stands up to the stranger, he is abruptly shot. Shocked, a dark rage consumes Felicity, and she neatly dispatches his murderer with a speed and agility that leave her and everyone witnessing what has just occurred with no doubt that she, too, is Tainted. Felicity makes a break to get away, but she and Nate are scooped up by the police and handcuffed.
In a filthy jail cell, separated from Nate, and with no one to help, Felicity fears for the worst, but, during the night, a man appears outside her cell. He identifies himself as Mr. Hawksmoor, and he helps her to escape. He explains that the men who killed Kit are called the Huntsmen. Their leader, the Duke of Warwick, will stop at nothing to root out and eliminate anyone who is Tainted. Hawksmoor is the Head of Greybourne Academy which is where he takes Felicity. Greybourne Academy is an elite school of spies and assassins in service to no other than Queen Victoria. Felicity is fascinated to learn that the members of this group don’t refer to themselves as Tainted, but instead they use the ancient name of Morgana and view their abilities as a gift rather than a curse.
Felicity vows to bide her time until she can escape and locate Nate. She struggles to fit in among the group of Morganas. Some welcome her, but some see her presence as competition to be the one trainee who will be chosen to join the Greybourne Elders in a mission to prevent Warwick and his Huntsmen from committing a terror plot at Queen Victoria’s upcoming Golden Jubilee celebrations.
The compelling premise of an alternate Victorian Era London adventure-fantasy is ripe with potential. Readers are quickly thrown into the action, and Felicity is a vulnerable but strong young lady. Secondary characters, however, would benefit from more dimension, specifically Rose, a mean girl rival, Julian, the mysterious, attractive love interest, and teacher Mrs. Isherwood, who, for some reason, hates Felicity but eventually helps her. It is difficult to become attached to characters who don’t rise to being more than tropes.
That said, Game of Secrets is an enjoyable mix of an historical setting, spying, and magical abilities. There is plenty of adventure and danger as the trainees are sent on small missions. The plot is fast-paced, but sometimes to the detriment of plot twists that should be heart-wrenching moments that don’t get the emotional emphasis they deserve.
Kim Foster is the author of the “Agency of Burglary & Theft” series for adults. Game of Secrets is her YA debut. She has an atypical background for someone who writes thrillers about thieves and spies and criminals: she has a degree in medicine and is a practicing family doctor. She lives with her husband and their two young sons in Victoria, BC.
Chris Laurie is an Outreach Librarian at Winnipeg Public Library in Winnipeg, Manitoba.