Secrets of the Snakestone

A French Indian tween traverses 19th-century Paris seeking answers to a family mystery in DasGupta’s mystical debut. Zélie Dutta doesn’t understand why her beloved father sent her from India to work as a maid in the Parisian household of Madame Malaise a year and a half before this book’s start. Nor does she understand why he hasn’t written to her in two months. Miserable from constant accusations of thievery and witchcraft by her peers, Zélie plots an escape—and then sees a redheaded boy on the street holding her father’s locket. Determined to find out how and why her father’s possession traveled 5,000 miles to France, she enlists the help of the boy, who introduces himself as Jules Dubois. Jules guides Zélie into the sewers, and together the youths delve deeper into a broadening mystery involving Zélie’s family history, a folkloric object called the Snakestone, and a sinister scientist fraternity named the Brotherhood of Blood. Though a convenient plot saps tension, descriptive text renders Zélie’s refreshingly non-Eurocentric view of the vivid Belle Epoque Paris setting as DasGupta’s impetuous and compassionate protagonist ventures from the Catacombs to the Cirque Fantastique. Includes a map of Paris. Ages 9–12. Agent: Kate Shaw, Shaw Agency. (Oct.)