The Elemental Detectives

“The Elemental Detectives is a very commercial adventure fantasy series, not a straight history. There is magic, and Patrice is happy to say that it’s sort of a riff on Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series which is set now but has all this fantastical stuff of London’s past… It’s a joy because even five years ago you would never have seen a book like this, which crosses historical and fantasy, with Black characters. She has planted her flag in the genre and said, ‘We’ve got historical fiction, now we can have myths. We can have legends of this place which we are a part of’… She’s an excellent writer. There’s a driving ‘Let’s solve the puzzle’ element to the mystery, which some kids will like. And there are the mythical monsters. I think you’ll get kids who maybe would not read historical fiction who might read this because it’s an adventure, and there are dragons.” Read more...

The Best Historical Fiction for 8-12 Year Olds

Catherine Johnson, Children's Author