Review: The Looking-Glass House by Russell Proctor
Review: The Looking-Glass House. Volume Three of the The Jabberwocky Book by Russell Proctor.
Volume One: The Red King Volume Two: An Unkindness of Ravens Volume Three: The Looking-Glass House
Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy from Oz battle a supernatural serial killer in Edwardian London.
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From the first line, I was hooked. Actually, as soon as I read the blurb, I already knew that here was a story with great potential! I was a trifle concerned about starting at Book 3, but the author assures that readers don’t need to have read books 1 and 2 – this one works fine as a standalone. And he’s entirely correct! Mind you, how great is it that I can now go back and read more from this series. I will definitely be adding the first two to my “To Be Read & soon” pile.
Let’s get back to that first line:
He had seen a thousand men die since breakfast, and it was still only seven in the morning.
It put me right in the moment and the following paragraphs put me right in the trenches and No Man’s Land of World War 1. Russell has given just the right amount of description to carry you all the way to the stinking mud riddled with dead bodies and despair that was France during the Great War. His research into the war and its impact on everybody involved must be very detailed indeed. I could almost hear the shells and the ammo, and smell the horror (no mean feat considering I’m anosmic and wouldn’t know a flower from a pile of turd when it comes to smells).
And that’s just the opening chapter!
The journey into fantasy is subtle, but before you know it you’re knee-deep in an intricately woven story that transitions in and out of Edwardian England (Sherlock Holmes era) and the amazing worlds of Oz, Wonderland, and Looking Glass Land, and their lead characters, Dorothy, Alice and the Red King. It’s been decades since I read the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. However, it seems to me that the author of The Looking-Glass House has brought this incredibly rich source material into a whole new era of storytelling. I really can’t wait to get started on the rest of this series.
I have no criticisms of Russell Proctor’s ability to weave a fantastic tale. His attention to detail is amazing and he must be a wizard of mind-mapping to keep each of his characters and their separate storylines in check. He must also be an expert on the original material and I would love to hear more about his travails in research and melding all this together into his own exciting ‘war of worlds”.
Congratulations, Russell. This truly is an excellent read and I loved every page. The ending is spot on! You’ve tied it up with a neatly pressed bow and delivered a conclusion that perfectly book ends a ripping read through fantasy, mystery, history, and literature!
You can purchase The Looking Glass House from Amazon
And remember to leave your review when you're done reading
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Patricia Leslie is an Aussie urban fantasy author with Odyssey Books. Her novels, The Ouroboros Key, and, A Single Light, deal with the major issues of today like mystical magical beings living deep in Colorado's Rocky Mountains and hungry vampire-like spirits devouring the population of southern Sydney. Evil powers abound in her next novel set in Sydney and Scotland in the 1800s. Patricia enjoys the research as much as the writing so pay no mind to middle aged women with cameras wandering around Sydney. It could very well be Patricia Leslie hunting down heritage buildings and their stories.
Drop in on Patricia's strand of the World Wide Web and catch up on her adventures or follow along on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram – www.patricialeslie.net
