I must admit, I had my doubts about this book, particularly in regards to whether Joseph Delaney could pull off a believable narration from Grimalkin. My God, has he pulled it off. The story begins where the last book (The Spook's Destiny) left off - The Fiend has been bound (albeit temporarily), and Grimalkin has been tasked with preventing the head of the Fiend from falling into the hands of her enemies, in order to buy Tom and the Spook time to find a way to permanently bind him. The book follows Grimalkin's journey, and along the way she encounters characters old and new, whilst still making the story feel believable, but also a full continuation to the whole storyline. I have loved the series, and I think that this book has the potential to be the best of the lot so far - it is full of shocks, action and plenty of the dark elements so common in the Wardstone Chronicles; however, Grimalkin's tale (one which I feel was well overdue) gives it the edge over the previous books, as her character has so much personal history and knowledge of the dark, something that Tom (the narrator in the previous stories) lacks. She provides for a unique narration, something which I am sure fans of the series will savour! For someone so ruthless and relentless, her narration provides much insight into why she became a Witch Assassin, why she despises the Fiend, but importantly, why she decides to aid Tom. You could end up empathising with her, though the extent to which you do could be surprising, considering that she is the deadly, renowned '...Grimalkin, the witch assassin of the Malkin clan'!
There are instances within this tale where an end to the chronicles as a whole are hinted at. Whilst trying not to reveal too much, certain characters meet their end in this story, so for anyone who considers this to be a side story, you really REALLY need to read this as part of the whole series, otherwise future books may not make sense. The next book to follow in this style - an alternate narration - I believe will be 'I am Alice'. I sincerely hope that it will follow on from the success of this story!
