I read this book because I had already read Mister Monday and really wanted to know what happened next. While good, I liked Mister Monday better. Arthur's adventures continue in the House where he must win the second Key to save his family (and his world). I am looking forward to finding the story featuring Lady Wednesday.

The asthmatic Arthur Penhaligon is summoned again. His new adversary is Grim Tuesday, and once again he finds himself in a battle to the death to get the Second Key. If he gives in to the errant Days or loses the battle against them, he knows they will destroy his own home on Earth as well as the Denizens and inhabitants of the magical House, including his new friend and stalwart companion Suzy Turquoise Blue, one of the children spirited away from plague-ridden Europe by the Pied Piper centuries earlier.

This is the second book in the key to the kingdom series. In this book Arthur must return to the house to collect the second key of the house in a part of the house called the Far Reaches. This realm of the house is basically a big pit that is mined for a substance called nothing. Arthur does not return to the house willingly but is forced to because his family is in danger and he has to get the second key to save them. This book is kind of boring at the beginning but it picks up speed toward the end. The ending is the best part and is what keep me reading the series. Tom

Things go from bad to worse for Arthur Penhaligon in the second book of this series, "Grim Tuesday."

Our young and most unlikely hero has barely returned from Mister Monday's domain, when the telephone hotline starts ringing again. Arthur quickly learns that Grim Tuesday has found a convenient loophole in the Trustee agreement, and that all Mister Monday's substantial debts have been passed on to him as the new Master of the Lower House. Grim T. means to collect one way or the other, and as the world's economy gets turned on its end, Arthur realizes that he has no choice but to go back and sort it all out, and of course get the second key and some added responsibility that he can well do without.

Greedy Grim Tuesday runs a huge "nothing" mine using slave labor, and makes all the gadgets and widgets and doodads needed by the Days and anybody with the right currency. Lots of new and deadly creatures await Arthur, some of whom are allergic to salt and some to silver, but all have the common goal of inflicting upon him as much pain as possible. With the help of his friend Leaf (from book one) he finally finds the entrance to Tuesday's mineshafts, and begins his new quest, going deep, deep undercover as one of Tuesday's slaves.

Fortunately for him, he gets a little help from Suzy Turquoise Blue, Japeth the walking Thesaurus, Captain Shelvocke the sea-faring brother of the Pied Piper, and to a lesser extent a hairy, materialistic bit of fluff formally known as "eyebrow". Soon he's sailing off into very strange waters to retrieve the second fragment of the Will, with a heavy heart, a broken leg and almost more problems than he can bear.

Nix widens the scope of the world he introduced in "Mister Monday." Now that we're acquainted with concepts like the House, the Will, and the different Days, he goes full-speed into the storyline. There are plenty of interesting hints about the future -- especially a communique from Lady Wednesday. What will Nix do next? Only time will tell.

Exciting and imaginative, although sometimes a tad long on description, Nix wraps this one up rather quickly at the end, and gives a tantalizing glimpse into Wednesday's woes. A must-read if you've completed your Monday reading. ( )

Still really enjoying the series, but the physicality in this one was a little tough for me. Walking for miles and miles on the dark, and crawling for hours and hours across the ceiling with stupid wings banging constantly, then breaking a leg in a horrific fall - I don't know how one kid survived that long. And then to have an unsuspected talent burst forth in a competition, well, it was all a little much.
Still, this is the most magnificent world building I've encountered in a while, I love Susie, and (squeee!) the Ancient Mariner! And he's the Pied Piper's brother! Fantasy does not get more lovely than that. ( )