Clem Fatale has been betrayed

Twelve-year-old Clem, short for Clementina, is the daughter of master criminal Jimmy, and delights in helping her dad and his team, the Spiders, as she is small enough to wriggle into tight holes, and also very good at picking locks. The setting is London, in 1951, and the gang are trying to steal a famous jewel, the Fool’s Canary, a yellow diamond cut into the shape of a bird, from the stately home of Lord Weatherdale. It all goes wrong: the police arrive, the safe is empty and the jewel has gone.  Jimmy has disappeared, and the escaping gang accidentally kidnap Lord Weatherdale’s son, Gilbert, who tries to pretend he is a servant, but Clem has noticed his resemblance to family portraits, and manages to prevent the gang from being too nasty to him. The gang are a woman called Twizzler, Screw, and Jimmy’s best friend Monty, and Clem’s instincts tell her that one of them is a traitor. She and Gilbert run away to try to find her dad and work out who has the jewel, and the over-protected, weedy Gilbert proves more useful than he had seemed, growing in confidence as he experiences real life…

Although the protagonists are, strictly speaking, on the wrong side of the law, Jimmy is helping people with some of his proceeds, and they are up against people who are even worse, (Mascarpone is a nasty character, but he gets his come-uppance!)  Clem and Gilbert’s resourcefulness ensure that the glory for catching the thief goes to Sergeant Stickler, a woman who has been in hot pursuit. It’s a very exciting story from Eve Wersocki-Morris, who knows what works in this kind of plot.  It’s a world of tea rooms and buns, glamorous nightclubs and sleazy dives, and there is a lot of humour. Honie Beam’s cartoon illustrations are great fun, and this should be a popular book. We are promised a further adventure with Clem and Gilbert in January 2026.