Alison Rushby (text) and Bronte Rose Marando (illustrator), Miss Penny Dreadful and the Malicious Maze (Miss Penny Dreadful #2), Walker Books Australia, April 2023, 144 pp., RRP $15.99 (pbk), ISNB 9781760654047
A maze gobbling up servants in a country estate and missing parents are juicy enticements to read Alison Rushby’s second instalment in the Miss Penny Dreadful series.
The story takes off right from where the first instalment ends. Penny who has been whisked away from her boarding school by her eccentric aunt still has very little idea why her parents left. But she does know something is not quite right, the evidence is all over her townhouse, her parents would never leave it in such a state! Before Penny can dedicate too much time to solving that mystery she is carried off to Harewood Hall where there is talk of a maze gobbling up servants. With such a delicious tale, how could her authoress Aunt Harriet resist a visit? Nothing is as it seems and Penny is determined to discover why.
I thoroughly enjoyed this second instalment. It is exciting, fast paced and adventurous, But it’s the eccentricity of the characters that make it delightful. The importance of name selection is not wasted on this author who has a long list of eccentric titles and names that never allow the reader to forget they are in Penny’s world of oddity and peculiarities. There’s “Mr Featherstonehaugh…of Biggs, Boggs, Betts and Butts,” for instance, irresistibly chuckle worthy.
However, Penny does not let emotion or the bizarre people around her govern her senses. She remains logistical and determined to ‘examine evidence’, find answers and ‘seek truth’. She is compassionate, decisive, assertive, open minded and tenacious; characteristics that make her a worthy role model for the young readership this book is targeting. With a cliffhanger ending, I have recommended this series to my daughter, nieces and students and have no qualms recommending it to any young lover of mystery and adventure.
Reviewed by Katie Mineeff
