Secrets of the Purple Pearl (Millicent Quibb)

This is the second book in the series featuring the three Porch sisters, as they continue their studies at ‘The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science.’  In this story they find themselves staying at the famous Purple Pearl Hotel, together with the other members of their wider family.  However, their purpose is to check on the plotting being undertaken by their enemies, the Krenetics Research Association, who are in search of the real Purple Pearl; a treasure that has some very special powers.  The question is whether the girls will succeed in their mission and prevent some very dastardly results in the process?

If you are a fan of the quirky, even weird, type of humour, then this is the type of book that you will devour.  The stories are set in an alternative version of our world and in what we would call the Edwardian period; but the actual setting would suggest it is somewhere in the USA.  This allows the author to truly let her imagination take over and gives us both characters and situations that could not exist in real life.  The central protagonists all have unusual skills which can prove useful when trying to solve the mysteries that they encounter.  The eponymous Millicent Quibb is the sort of person that when trying to solve problems only manages to create even greater ones.  This combination gives us a delightfully madcap world that is best read about, rather than being lived.  What adds to the quirkiness of the book are the wonderfully funny illustrations, with humorous comments and verse that appear throughout; particularly when the narrator starts talking directly to the reader.  The series looks as if it still has some distance to run as the ending of this book gave us a nasty shock, with the potential for total disaster in the next book.  I am sure that fans will be flocking to read this when it appears.