Riddle in Ruby

Ruby is a thief-in-training and a keeper of secrets-ones she doesn't even know herself. A Riddle in Ruby is the first book in a witty and fast-paced fantasy-adventure trilogy for fans for Jonathan Stroud, Septimus Heap, and The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates. Ruby Teach, daughter of a smuggler and pirate, has been learning how to swindle and steal and pick the most complex locks for as long as she can remember. But a collision with aristocratic young lord Athen sends her spinning into chaos. Little did she know that her whole life has been spent in hiding from nefarious secret societies and the Royal Navy . . . who are both now on her trail. In this debut middle grade adventure, Kent Davis weaves a rip-roaring tale through an alternate colonial Philadelphia. A world where alchemy-that peculiar mix of magic and science-has fueled the industrial revolution. With this highly original setting, a cast of fully rounded characters and rapid-fire, funny dialogue, A Riddle in Ruby will call to mind fantasy greats like Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett.

The Riddle in Ruby trilogy takes readers on a rip-roaring adventure through an alternate version of colonial America, where magic and science meet, and where one young thief carries a secret everyone wants. In this second volume, Ruby Teach has become the enemy's prisoner. She bargained with her freedom to protect her friends-but her friends aren't about to abandon her, either. That's not what friends do. Ruby's blood holds a secret, one that could turn the tides of the looming war for whomever unlocks it first. Ruby's father, former pirate Captain Teach, and her friends-a motley crew made up of a young aristocrat, a servant, and an apprentice alchemist-must race against time to locate the hidden fortress where she's being held. But the one person who could help them is Ruby's mysterious and powerful mother, and no one has seen her since Ruby's birth. Kent Davis sweeps our heroes through cities and the deepest wilderness with imagination, humor, and magic that fans of Jonathan Stroud and Terry Pratchett will devour.

"Action-packed and filled with great friendships, terrible villains, plot twists, and plenty of humor."-San Antonio Express-News In the gripping final book in the Riddle in Ruby trilogy, young thief Ruby Teach and her friends must save their city from an evil scientist with nefarious plans. The epic conclusion of the Riddle in Ruby trilogy is a hilarious and dastardly adventure perfect for fans of The School for Good and Evil and The Amulet of Samarkand. In the past year, Ruby Teach was kidnapped, taken to a remote fortress, and experimented on by an evil scientist working for the crown. And even though she's finally been reunited with her friends, her trouble has not ended. The vile Dr. Swedenborg has created a machine that steals the life force out of the unsuspecting citizens of Philadelphi, and Ruby and her crew might be the only ones brave enough to stop him. With a mix of magic, science, friendship, peril, and one adorable mechanical otter, Kent Davis's reimagining of colonial America is wholly original.