It’s peopled with lots of unusual characters and quirky places, while Herbie is a reluctant hero with a mysterious history of his own to be discovered – luckily, there are more books to come in this addictive new series. In the dismal offseason, young Herbie Lemon, the Grand Nautilus Hotel’s cautious (he’s heard the legends) Lost-and-Founder, is on the job, keeping warm, when Violet Parma, abandoned at the hotel as an infant 12 years ago, arrives, searching for her lost parents and fleeing pursuit. Supernatural elements and a steampunk feel combine to make this a fun, mystery-filled adventure with lots of spine-tingling twists and turns. And on top of this, things keep pointing them towards the terrifying legend of the malamander, an infamous local sea monster which Herbert would really rather stayed a legend… Following the clues quickly leads Herbert into far more danger than he’d like, opening up a whole lot of questions about the town’s extremely eclectic mix of residents and the secrets they’re hiding. Left in the hotel as a baby after her parents mysteriously disappeared, Violet is determined to find out what happened to them and wants Herbert’s help. Welcome to Eerie-on-Sea, a seaside setting with a creepy twist. Malamander is exactly the kind of light-hearted adventure I needed to break out of the ennui of the pandemic A gill-man is on the loose, but hes only. But his newest ‘lost’ item is rather different: an enigmatic girl called Violet Parma.

The hotel’s ‘lost and founder’, he’s tasked with cataloguing lost things and trying to find their owners. Malamander is the kind of book I dreamed about as a kid: a magical blend of oddball folklore and humor about two peculiar and plucky kids who puzzle out some.

Twelve-year-old Herbert Lemon lives and works in the Grand Nautilus Hotel in the strange and frequently foggy seaside town of Eerie-on-Sea. Malamander is the first of an exciting new series of adventures set in the faded grandeur of an old English seaside town.

Malamander book review