"The Dead Gentlemen" By Mathew Cody

This week I went to my neighborhood library and one of the books on display was “The Dead Gentlemen” by Mathew Cody. I read the summary and the book looked amazing. I am only a quarter of the way through and the book is full of action and suspense. The book switches between the early 1900s to the modern day 21^st century. The book is pretty hard to put down and I have been told by teachers to stop reading during class. The book grabs your attention from the very first page and maintains that strong hold throughout the book, or at least to where I am. This guy named Pseudonymous Bosch wrote a review on the back cover that says “Attention, thieves, scoundrels, and fearless adventurers! This book is for you. From the underground lairs of monsters and trolls to the underwater ruins of ancient civilizations, The Dead Gentlemen will take you everywhere you ever wanted to go – and more than a few places you never imagined. Read it now. Read it fast. Before some well-meaning person snatches it away.”

 The reason that he talks about thieves is because the main character started out life as a thief. You might be wondering what the real summary is so here it is: “Nineteenth-century orphan Tommy Learner didn’t realize what he was getting himself into when he stole a mechanical bird from the Dead Gentleman himself. The bird, nicknamed Merlin, led him straight to the Explorer’s Society. More than simply aimless wanderers, the Explorer’s Society has the ability to travel between multiple worlds and increase their vast knowledge. The society, though, is beginning to crumble as the Dead Gentleman is slowly conquering each world one by one. He is headed to Earth next, and no punk street orphan or flimsy mechanical bird can stop him.

Twenty-first-century Jezebel Lemon’s only adventure seems to come in the form of watching her artist father work on the large mural in her room. All that changes, however, once she decides to go exploring her large apartment building’s basement. There she discovers the ghost, or something like it, of a boy named Tommy Learner. The next thing she knows, she’s been transported not only in the past, but also to a strange new world inhabited with dinosaurs. Jezebel isn’t sure what happened, so she looks at Tommy for a lot of answers in between running from dinosaurs and the local inhabitants. Thoughts of getting home are dashed once the Dead Gentleman appears, and he’s taken a strong interest in Jezebel.

Reluctantly, Tommy and Jezebel agree to work together, and thus the three simple ideas of childhood are brought to fruition. Tommy and Jezebel must explore different worlds in order to figure out how to stop the Dead Gentleman from bringing to life all the monsters that lurk in the dark corners of closets. If they don’t, then the world will be forever changed as they know it. Present and past collide in order to save the future. I really hope that you decide to read this book because I am really enjoying it!