I am a great fan of this author and she has not disappointed with this creepy mystery set among the narrow alleys of Old town in Edinburgh. The main characters are empathetic and the introduction of a young Arthur Conan Doyle gives us the explanation for his later writing of Sherlock Holmes. A brilliant read for all those who love to solve a mystery (and there are a lot of those).

Zinnie is fiercely protective of Sadie and Nell, her sisters. Their home in Old Edinburgh is dark, dirty and underground but Zinnie is proud of it. At least she’s been able to keep her family together. She doesn’t believe the talk in the Close about the ghost.

“Can’t stay down there no more. Not with that spirit abroad. Vicious, she is. Evil.”

Arthur Conan Doyle, who is currently a medical student at the Royal Infirmary, pays Zinnie to do jobs for him. He is currently investigating a mystery that not even the local authorities have been able to solve.

“More subterfuge? How perfectly wonderful!”

I loved Zinnie. She’s headstrong, resilient and intelligent. Her loyalty to her sisters and ingenuity in finding ways to provide for them impressed me. She’s the kind of person you want on your side. I didn’t feel like I got to know Zinnie’s sisters, Sadie and Nell, that well; although I know facts about each of them, this was really Zinnie’s story.

Along the way, Zinnie meets an explorer and doctor who are both intelligent, independent and female. I really liked the inclusion of women who were very much ahead of their time.

I’m not usually much of a fan of the inclusion of historical figures in fiction so I was initially hesitant when I encountered Arthur Conan Doyle. The author’s historical note at the end of the book helped me correlate some elements of his character with his life. I found the information about Doctor Sophia Jex-Blake particularly interesting, as I hadn’t heard of her before.

With a “terrible, cruel man” with cronies, a tortoise named Algernon, curiosities from around the world and mysteries to solve, including ’the Mystery of the Severed Ears’, this book went in a different direction than I was expecting. The prologue had me anticipating supernatural spookiness; however, the focus was more on solving mysteries and the importance of family and being there for the ones we love.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Stripes Publishing, an imprint of Little Tiger Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

3.5 Stars!

All I needed was to see Arthur Conan Doyle and I knew I needed to read this book. The research that has been put into this novel is greatly appreciated. By intertwining historical figures and places into a work of middle grade fiction really made it believable in some way and it was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters of this story also really held their own and I liked them all individually.
The only aspect that stopped this book being a 4 star in my opinion was that the first quarter was incredibly difficult to get into, there was a slight lack of set up and introduction to the characters but the minute I connected with that this was a very enjoyable read.
Strong sense of sisterhood between the girls and learning to find your own in a world that hasn't dealt you the greatest hand.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Little Tiger Group for accepting my request for this arc!

This is an excellent book. I had so much fun reading Zinnie’s adventures in 1870s Edinburgh. Sharon Gosling has created a totally believable world, and I just love the way she has woven in real people (and included some information on them at the back of the book). The adventure itself is exciting, I found it hard to put my kindle down to go to sleep. However, there is nothing too frightening for the age group it is primarily aimed at (Middle Grade). It is very well written, the characters are all three dimensional. I particularly liked Zinnie - although she has had a very difficult childhood, and had to learn to look after herself, she is still kind and compassionate towards others.

I’d recommend this book to children and adults alike, it’s great fun and a joy to read. I will certainly be looking out for more books from Sharon Gosling.

3.5 stars!

The House of Hidden Wonders is a fun and heartwarming children’s historical fiction with a lot of charm. I loved the setting, the characters and the atmosphere of the story. There was clearly a lot of historical research put into this novel - which I really appreciated - and I think Gosling did a great job an interweaving real historical figures with the fictional events of the story.
The only downside for me was that I did find the story quite hard to get into at first. There wasn’t a lot of ‘set-up’ in the first quarter of the story, and I sort of felt a little thrown in at the deep end, as if I was already expected to know the characters & their motivations. However, once I got over this hurdle, it was an enjoyable experience.
Overall, The House or Hidden Wonders is a fun and adventurous children’s novel that touches on some interesting & important themes in a charming and accessible way!

I loved the weaving of Conan Doyle into this intriguing mystery story with a fabulous strong female protagonist. Zinnie was extremely likeable with her desire to help others (especially her sisters) at all costs. The action of the story was well paced and readable, with genuine fears for characters within the story. All in all, a fantastic story that I devoured quickly and enjoyed very much.

This is a great story for upper key stage two children, set in Victorian Edinburgh (which makes a change from London!) Among the slums below the streets, three orphaned girls try to scrape by on their wits, living together as sisters. A mysterious freak show operator,a beneficient female explorer and a young medical student Arthur Conan Doyle are part of the adventures, where the girls have to solve crime and survive in a tough time. I really enjoyed the adventure, and was rooting for the girls!

A beautiful, emotional, clever and utterly fascinating story that cleverly weaves together fiction and history.

Honestly, this is one of my top picks for my book of the year. With no anticipation, as I read it the day it was announced, it absolutely blew me away!

It's a stand-alone story, though it has a lot of similar themes and the same period setting as The Golden Butterfly, also by Sharon Gosling (and also a spectacularly good novel!) While The Golden Butterfly is set in the theatres of Victorian London, The House of Hidden Wonders takes place in and below Edinburgh. The city is brought vibrantly to life, with a wealth of detail and atmosphere, particularly the parts set in the ruins of old Edinburgh, which are mostly buried under the city built on top of them. You can go there, and wander around it in a weird, creepy ghost town. The thought of young children living down there is a chilling one.

And this is a chilling novel. Unlike the rather well-to-do heroine of the Golden Butterfly, the girls in this novel are homeless, scraping a living any way they can on the streets. They've fallen through the cracks in society, and it's harrowing to see how hard their lives are, and the extent to which their at the mercy of street thugs, starvation and disease.

But it's also a novel filled with love and hope. The bond between the sisters is really something very special, and when Zinnie asserts that they are sisters, despite their different appearances and parents and everything, it is just a truly beautiful moment. The way they support each other and that palpable love between them is gorgeous.

I loved the mix of historical and fictional characters, and I thought this worked really well. The young Arthur Conan Doyle is a very amusing figure, and there's fun to be had in little hints about his future writing career. I'd never heard of Sophia Jex-Blake until I read this book, and her real life story is a fascinating one, and something I think more people should be aware of. As with The Golden Butterfly, the way feminist themes are woven through the novel is very clever and very powerful. But one of my favourite characters has to be the (fictional) Lady Sarah Montague, the wealthy widow turned world explorer. Her dinner party scene was just absolutely fantastic, hilarious and inspirational. Victorian-era mansplaining put down with consummate style.

The plot is absolutely cracking. There are so many mysterious elements, a truly nasty villain, a cute animal sidekick, dastardly plots and complicated plans to stop them.. I couldn't put the book down until I'd finished. There's also some really sensitively done disability-representation, that I thought was beautifully handled.

A truly stunning novel, emotional, exciting and empowering.

‘The House of Hidden Wonders’ is set in Victorian Edinburgh and centres around three sisters: Zinnie, Sadie and Nell. They live in the abandoned tunnels under Edinburgh’s old town and do what they can to get by. Zinnie has befriended a young Arthur Conan Doyle, a medical student with an eye for mystery and ambitions to be a writer. She soon finds herself helping him to investigate why corpses keep turning up with missing ears!
The House of Wonders is Edinburgh’s latest attraction and it’s owned by the suspicious Phineas MacDuff. Zinnie must also discover what exactly is going on in The House of Wonders whilst continuing to protect her sisters. She is a headstrong, intelligent young girl who longs for a better life, but also wants to do her best for her sisters. Her attitude is certainly one to be admired!
This book is perfect for mystery fans as well as fans of historical fiction. It’s fairly dark at times, but there is plenty of action to move it along quickly and it would sit nicely alongside a topic on the Victorians. The descriptions of Victorian Edinburgh are really detailed. The book also cleverly tackles issues of class and gender, particularly women entering the medical profession and exploring the wider world during Victorian times.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for the ARC of this book.

A great children’s mystery story partly set in Edinburgh’s underground city - that’s all I needed to know before requesting it! Likeable characters and an interesting read. Would be great if it was made into a series!

Fast paced and full of heart, I loved this MG mystery novel and think it will be a huge hit with young readers this year. Here are three reasons why:

1. There is a beautiful sibling relationship at the heart of this novel - in Zinnie's found-family of girls - and the affection the sisters felt for each other was at the heart of their every decision. Nell, the youngest sister, falls ill at the beginning of the novel and it is her survival and happiness that drives many of Zinnie's actions. Aelfine is the newest sister and her resourcefulness and bravery made her a fantastic character, along with her lovely pet monkey Ruby. I also loved the clever, resourceful Sadie who has a brilliant knowledge of herbal healing.

2. The Victorian Edinburgh setting was incredible, with plenty of atmospheric historical details. The inclusion of real historical figures like Arthur Conan Doyle, was a lot of fun and I loved all of the little references to his writing, and the Sherlock Holmes vibes which ran throughout the book. It was also particularly interesting to learn about Dr Jex-Blake and the struggles the first female doctors faced and there were some great facts included at the back. I can see this novel being great for classes studying the Victorian period as it provides a vivd representation of what life was like at the time, especially attitudes to race, gender and disabilities.

3. The House of Hidden Wonders was a mystery story with a difference. We know who committed the crime quite early on in the narrative, and the protagonist is instead trying to prove their guilt. This provides a change of pace from a traditional mystery, but there's still plenty to speculate and wonder about. There is a lot at stake for Zinnie and her sisters and it was thrilling to watch them cope with all the complications that came their way.

Thank you Little Tiger for providing me with a review copy of this novel through NetGalley.

Starting with a kinetic chase through the crowded, threatening streets of 19th century Old Town Edinburgh this story gripped me by the throat and would not let go until I had finished. You are immediately made aware that the brave main protagonist, Zinnie, will confront any danger, whether it be the authorities who would break up her “family” or cruel, underworld, criminal Bartholemew Talbot, in order to protect her younger “sisters”, Sadie and Nell. Zinnie has escaped the horrors of an orphanage and despite her tender years will fiercely defend anyone in her care from a similar fate.

The juxtaposition of Old Town Edinburgh with its twisting, dangerous alleyways and criminal underbelly and the elegant, chandelier-strewn mansions of New Town only half-a-mile away is a recurring theme in the story. Zinnie begins to move between the two extremes as she finds herself in the employ of a young medical student who relies on her knowledge of the streets for information. He is none other than Arthur Conan Doyle! Through him Zinnie enters the sumptuous home of wealthy Lady Sarah Montague, a widow who defies convention by travelling on expeditions to far flung corners of the world and who becomes an admirer of Zinnie’s indefatigable spirit.

The precisely-plotted mystery features ghostly apparitions, corpses appearing in the medical school with their ears removed, the sinister MacDuff who plans to open the eponymous House of Hidden Wonders on George Street and a varied cast of street villains. The real location of Mary King’s Close, the dark, disease-ridden ruins of former tenements which are abandoned by all but ghosts and beggars, are so powerfully described that you find yourself hunched and shivering as you read these passages. In contrast, the kindness and care offered by Sophia Jex-Blake, the first female to open a medical practice in Scotland casts a ray of hope over the story.

I don’t want to reveal any more details about the plot for fear of giving away any spoilers, but I was utterly enthralled from beginning to end. I think this book would be perfect for children in the summer term of Year 6 at primary school, or Year 7 at secondary school, as I know that many KS3 reading lists feature the Sherlock Holmes titles. The author, Sharon Gosling, has conjured a story which is thoroughly entertaining in its own right and provides an excellent precursor to the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle, giving a glimpse into his future career and showing a model for the Baker Street Irregulars often employed by his pipe-smoking detective. Finally I loved the subtle reflection here on the true meaning of family and the spotlight on strong females who were unafraid to break the conventions of their age.

https://www.thebreadcrumbforest.com/2020/02/upcoming-release-house-of-hidden.html

The standard of middle grade publications available on the UK market is currently sensational and this up and coming novel by Sharon Gosling, author of The Diamond Thief had me hooked within the first few pages.
Set in the murky depths of 19th century Edinburgh, Gosling weaves a heart-wrenching story of three street sisters struggling to survive in the harshest of conditions. Soon their turmoil leads them into a world of mysterious criminal activity, ghosts and subterfuge with doses of deadly danger.
Gosling wows with strength of character and plot. Zinnie, the eldest of the three sisters, is sharp and loveable. Her desire to accept and protect those who have become her kin is endearing and the lengths she is prepared to go to save them is beyond brave. Aided by a posse of well-written and likeable adult characters- Arthur Conan Doyle, Lady Sarah Montague and Doctor Sophia Jex-Blake- who assist without patronising, Zinnie may have the chance she needs to solve the mystery of the house of hidden wonders.
I loved that the story was set in Edinburgh rather than London. The city had incredible character as a setting and had been clearly well-researched. Fact intermingled with fiction through the history of Edinburgh and through characters who had a firm footing in reality (Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Jex-Blake). This made for an intriguing and powerful read. There was oodles of girl power; from Zinnie and her sisters to the ground-breaking female doctor to the explorer to adorable Aelfine and her monkey and this made for a wonderful, heart-swelling end to the novel. Occasionally, the exchanges of dialogue felt a little long and there could have been an extra twist or two concerning the villain. However, with the focus firmly on Zinnie's difficult journey through the grim underworld, it was impossible not to become fully immersed in her world and her cause. I loved her straight-talking, her child-like acceptance of difference and her compassion for others so much that she will remain a memorable character for a long time to come - as will the originality and intensity of the story.
A thrilling, gripping and moving read.

Within pages I was hooked on the story of Zinnie, Sadie and Nell. I love that the story is set in Edinburgh, one of my favourite cities. Zinnie, Sadie and Nell are "sisters" living in a crowded, derelict building with dozens of others who are too poor and unable to provide for themselves, and to get out of this situation.
Running from the police in the first chapter and saving her sisters, you start to make assumptions about Zinnie. Perhaps she is a typical street urchin of the time period, stealing for money and food. However, we should never assume, for what you learn of Zinnie as you read further will amaze and impress you. She is a wonderful main character and one I truly enjoyed following throughout the story.
When she later walks into the home of Arthur Conan Doyle, the story really gets interesting. One of literature's greats can only mean one thing- mysteries to solve! This encounter with Conan Doyle is not the first nor the last but it does open up new characters and fortuitous events for Zinnie.
My heart was hammering and I had to force myself to slow down and not skip ahead throughout much of this book. I kept wanting to peek ahead and check on the characters but must admit I enjoyed it more by devouring every single word!
Zinnie has a penchant for trouble and danger but she is incredibly quick witted and clever. We rely upon her street smarts and attention to details as the mysteries are unravelled and inter-connected. She rivals Conan Doyle in her deducing skills and sleuthing abilities. Her loyalty to those she trusts is unwavering.
The House of Hidden Wonders is set to open soon with curiosities collected from around the world by Phineas MacDuff. While Zinnie is watching a seance performed in the house of Lady Sarah Montague (at the request of Conan Doyle), MacDuff makes Zinnie nervous and wary, and with good reason- he is not who he says or seems. This very same evening, Zinnie is introduced to Dr Sophia JexBlake- one of the first female doctors in Scotland. Lady Sarah and Dr Sophia fight the constraints of polite society in adventuring and studying.
The plot well and truly thickens with the arrival of a ghostly spectre and horrendous noise in the derelict home of the poorest in Old Edinburgh. The littlest sister, Nell becomes quite ill and Zinnie is caught in the midst of several interlocking problems. Danger lurks everywhere in Old Edinburgh and even with offers of help from Lady Sarah and Dr Sophia, Zinnie still feels a huge sense of loyalty and responsibility for her sisters. This extends to new sisters Aelfine and her pet monkey Ruby.
I was awe struck at the genius of this book and could not find any point suitable for a break. I had to know what happened next, how Zinnie solved the problems and what exactly the removed ears had to do with it all. So much intense plot and interconnectedness- it was completely beguiling.
Powerful, emotive and atmospheric. I can guarantee you will want to devour this book and will fall in love with Zinnie- her loyalty, love and instincts are admirable. Genius book!

This is an excellent book. I had so much fun reading Zinnie’s adventures in 1870s Edinburgh. Sharon Gosling has created a totally believable world, and I just love the way she has woven in real people (and included some information on them at the back of the book). The adventure itself is exciting, I found it hard to put my kindle down to go to sleep. However, there is nothing too frightening for the age group it is primarily aimed at (Middle Grade). It is very well written, the characters are all three dimensional. I particularly liked Zinnie - although she has had a very difficult childhood, and had to learn to look after herself, she is still kind and compassionate towards others.

I’d recommend this book to children and adults alike, it’s great fun and a joy to read. I will certainly be looking out for more books from Sharon Gosling.

I was given a free copy of this book. My opinions are my own.