Odd things to us seem like the norm for Horatio Lyle for he’s so familiar with strange goings on around him. Together with his erstwhile companions Tess (the thief) and Thomas (the toff) and hound (Tate) they get up to all sorts of hassle and surprises as they endeavour to solve yet another extraordinary adventure of the unscientific kind. A brilliant dose of laughs and adventure in equal measure. Catherine Webb published her first novel at just 14 and has quickly established herself as one of the most talented and exciting young writers in the UK and garnered comparisons with Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman. Her books are brilliantly plotted, time and place superbly portrayed and the characters wonderfully imagined. There are two further Horatio Lyle titles, The Extraordinary Adventures of Horatio Lyleand most recently The Domesday Machine
The Obsidian Dagger: Being the Further Extraordinary Adventures of Horatio Lyle Synopsis
There seem to be some odd things going on in the city of London, lately. Take the murders, for instance; quite peculiar. And those missing statues - what's going on there? And shouldn't Saint Paul's have a roof? Horatio Lyle, of course, is no stranger to...well, strangeness. In fact, he finds the lure of the unknown quite invigorating. But having just survived the most frightening episode in his life, the last thing he wants is that pompous Lord Lincoln sticking his nose in again and demanding that he take on another case the police are too thick to solve. Of course, His Lordship can be painfully persuasive at times, so it should come as no surprise that Lyle, along with his young proteges Tess (the thief) and Thomas (the toff), and his faithful hound Tate (the smart one), is soon up to his cravat in events of a singularly unscientific nature. Actually, it would all be terribly exciting if only they weren't trying to kill him.
Catherine Webb was born 1986 and is a British author, educated at the Godolphin and Latymer School, London, and the London School of Economics.
She was just fourteen years old when she completed Mirror Dreams, written during her school summer holidays. She sent her book of to a publisher who thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The book was published in 2002, and Webb was soon named Young Trailblazer of the Year by the magazine Cosmo GirlUK. Since then, she has gone on to write more books and has been favourably compared with Terry Pratchett (one of her literary heroes) and Philip Pullman. She has now published six novels, all with Atom Books, and is a third-year history student at the London School of Economics.
Webb prides herself on the scientific and historical accuracy of her Horatio Lyle books, which have been acclaimed by reviewers and readers. A lifelong Londoner, she enjoys walking through the areas she describes in her books - Bethnal Green, Clerkenwell and along the River Thames - comparing the city of London as it is now to how it was at various times in the past. She appeared in Cosmo Girl in 2006/7 in an interview and inspired many young writers to try and get published.
