Barnaby Grimes: Curse of the Night Wolf by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell

This book was recommended by our librarian, and I gave it a rating of four out of five. Barnaby Grimes is a messenger boy who likes to travel throughout the city by rooftop. This job gives him many opportunities to meet very interesting characters. One of his sickly friends finds a doctor with a miracle cure to his ailments, and Barnaby is suspicious that the medicine actually works. He becomes a messenger for the mysterious doctor and becomes even more suspicious of his activities. Although the doctor lives in the rich part of town, many of his patients are found in the most run-down parts of the city. Also, the doctor doesn't charge a fee for his treatments. Barnaby digs even deeper into the situation when many of the patients turn up missing or dead.

This book is the first in a series. The conflict in the story is unique, so it held my interest. I knew that the plot involved werewolves, but I wasn't totally sure how Barnaby and the doctor fit into it. That was a good thing, because it kept me wondering. The first page of the book grabbed my attention, because it described Barnaby's transformation into a werewolf. However, the introduction was a teaser, and I didn't find out what was really going on with him until much later in the book. Again, it held my interest by making me wonder about Barnaby would becoming a werewolf and how he would resolve the problem.