Once Lizzie escapes from drunken, thieving Pa’s greedy grasp and stumbles upon Fitzy’s Traveling Circus, a new world opens for her. There she finds death-defying high-wire acts, acrobats on horseback, trained elephants, and, most important of all, a welcoming community for a young runaway. Well, fortuneteller Madame Aurora is not so welcoming after Lizzie replaces her. But Lizzie has a ... Read moregift of visions, and so she begins to solve the mystery of the "Phantom" burglar-mugger who is terrorizing London. Expect plenty of action and suspense, especially when Lizzie and her young circus cohorts try to track down the evildoer. The surprise twist at the end piles on the melodrama, yet Lockwood’s vivid rendering of the circus pageant against the backdrop of London’s dicey nineteenth-century street life grabs readers. The author also weaves in elements of class tension between a populace happy to be entertained while looking down on lower-status entertainers. Lizzie will be back for more big-top escapades in this new series. — Anne O'Malley
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