At Lovereading we were incredibly impressed with Buckley-Archer’s enormously well written debut Gideon the Cutpurse, a time slip novel with parallel storylines, which was 'highly commneded, in the prestigious debut novel award, the Branford Boase. So, when The Tar Man hit our desk we were eager to see how the story of Kate, Peter, Gideon and The Tar Man develop in this, the second in a trilogy. As with the first, it’s incredibly evocative of time and place – both the 18th and the 21st century are incredibly well drawn, the author makes the idea of time travel very credible and the 12 year old protagonists Kate and Peter are enormous fun and you really sympathise with their situation. The parallel storylines of the children's quest to get back to the present with the help of Gideon but hindered by The Tar Man and Kate's father's struggle to bring them back work seamlessly together.
In Gideon the Cutpurse, an accident with an anti-gravity machine catapulted Peter Schock and Kate Dyer back to 1763. Now a bungled rescue attempt leaves Peter stranded in the 18th century whilst a terrifying villain, The Tar Man, takes his place and explodes onto 21st century London. Concerned about the potentially catastrophic effects of time travel, the NASA scientists responsible for the situation question whether it is right to rescue Peter. Kate decides to take matters into her own hands, and contacts Peter's father for help. But things don't go as planned, and soon the physical effects of time travel begin to have a disturbing effect on Kate. Meanwhile, in our century, The Tar Man wreaks havoc in a city whose police force are powerless to stop him.
'Skilled, engrossing and irresistible.' - Sunday Times
Author
About Linda Buckley-Archer
Linda Buckley-Archer was born in Sussex but spent most of her childhood in rural Staffordshire. She studied French literature and was a college lecturer for several years. She has tried her hand at all sorts of writing but loves writing for children, in particular. She has been commissioned to write articles for The Independent, radio dramas for Radio 4 and, most recently, a television screenplay for BBC 1. She now lives in South West London with her husband and two children.
