Monster Blood Tattoo Book Two: Lamplighter
by D. M. Cornish

Release Date: 1st May 2008
Publisher: David Fickling Books
ISBN: 978 0 3856 1192 3
RRP: £12.99

Rossamund makes it as a Lamplighter - but will he make it alive?

In Monster Blood Tattoo 1, we left Rossamünd with his new life as a Lamplighter after finally arriving at Winstermill in one piece, despite the best efforts of the nefarious Rivermaster Poundinch and various nickers and bogles (monsters).

The story continues as Rossamünd begins his training in earnest and still the trials persist, as ever more nickers and bogles attack – the most life-changing attack coinciding with the arrival of Threnody, a beautiful young girl who is determined to become a Lamplighter herself. You would think that what with monster attacks, learning to shoot and light lamps as fast as you can (to prevent being eaten), that this would be sufficient to keep even the most troublesome of boys in check – not so with Rossamünd. Not content with the military precision now dominating his life, he has to go and find a Rever-man. We met a rever-man in the last book – a sort of Frankenstein or man-made monster... and this one is no less terrifying. But the big question is: how did it get into Winstermill and did the Surgeon have anything to do with it?

Of course, this line of enquiry is nothing new and its predictability was somewhat of an irritant – but then, fiction mimics life and too often in life are there those who seek more and more power, irrespective of the methods used to gain it. Still, I am hoping for a slight twist – although I sense it is not forthcoming.

Europe is back, as are Rossamünd’s old masters – just in time for a ruckus with the Master-of-Clerks and the Surgeon. Most gratifying is the realisation that my inklings from book one were well founded – or at the very least, that we are supposed to have those suspicions... so is Rossamünd a manikin? (a half-breed between monster and man) – I just don’t know. I guess we’ll have to wait for book three to find out.

Monster Blood Tattoo 2 is a thick, intricately detailed piece of work that may make some falter, and invariably there are moments where the plot is somewhat dry and laborious, but there is no doubt in my mind that this is a work of genius... if it gets tedious and engrossed in its own telling, that is only because the author clearly has a passion for the world he has created and wants to share every last drop with us – and who are we to deny him? A stunning sequel comparable to nothing else in this genre at present.

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