The Tiger in the Well

I thought I might have to abandon this book early because the crime against the protagonist is so exasperating! Sally Lockhart, a single mother, is charged with a list of crimes starting with abandonment of her husband. If she is found guilty, her daughter will be taken from her. The truth is, she's never been married. Not that that makes for a good defence for a single mother in Victorian days. The man claiming to be her husband is a complete stranger. Her solicitor and lawyer were equally exasperating in advising her to show remorse. But I kept reading because the story is gripping, there is lots of action, and the details of Victorian life were so interesting. An excellent book intended for young adults. This is a dark story, show more describing the treatment and persecution of Jewish immigrants and political groups. show less

Summary: Picking up more than two years after the events of The Shadow in the North, the beginning of this book finds Sally Lockhart living a happy - if unconventional - Victorian life. She has a daughter, Harriet, whom she loves, good friends she can count on, and a successful financial consulting business. Then she's served papers suing her for divorce and custody of their child from a Mr. Parrish - a man she's never met, let alone married, and who certainly isn't Harriet's father. Parrish has a string of airtight evidence to show that they are married, however, and the law is clearly on his side. If Sally wants to keep her daughter, she must slip into the darker side of London, rife with poverty, disease, crime, socialist agitators, show more and a conspiracy designed to victimize Jewish immigrants, and keep herself and her daughter safe until she can figure out who Parrish is - and what he wants with her.

Review: I had given up on the Sally Lockhart series by the end of The Shadow in the North - I liked the characters quite a lot, the writing was excellent, and they evoked Victorian London in all of its damp, gritty, filthy glory. However, my problem was plotting - The Ruby in the Smoke had a well-built and exciting mystery but a terribly rushed denouement, and The Shadow in the North just bored me. However, a friend convinced me to read the rest of the series, and I'm so glad I did. The Tiger in the Well is easily the best of the three, with a fantastic plot that grabbed me right at the beginning, and didn't let go until the end. Even though I figured out who the ultimate bad guy was relatively early on, that didn't lessen my enjoyment of the novel at all. The sense of menace and suspense in this novel is palpable in practically every paragraph; it was terrifying watching Sally have her life dismantled around her, not by a villain by but the legal workings of the system, unable to turn to anyone for help and unable - by virtue of being a woman in a time when women's rights were laughably nonexistant - to even help herself.

There's also some deeper political and social commentary going on in the secondary sub-plots regarding immigration (particularly of Jews), socialism, and some degree of moral responsibility. It gets a smidge on the preachy side sometimes, but for the whole it was worked into the main story quite well. I listened to this book compulsively, finishing it in less than a week, and actually wanting to go do one of the more tedious parts of my job, just so I'd have an excuse to listen. Even though I was pretty sure I'd figured out the overarching mystery, I was intensely absorbed because the suspense is so well-built that I simply couldn't see a way for Sally to save herself and for everything to turn out all right. And, to be fair, there's a deus-ex-machina-element to the ending, but not as much as one might think - and all of the various subplots resolve into an extremely satisfying end. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: This book could actually work fairly well as a stand-alone, although of course your understanding is going to be deeper if you read the series in order. The Tiger in the Well is far and away the best of the bunch, though. Recommended for all those who like historical fiction and/or Philip Pullman's writing. show less

The third installment in Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart trilogy is The Tiger in the Well. This one was by far the best of the trio, and made me very glad I stuck with the series to the end. Without giving away too much of the plot, suffice it to say that Sally finds herself the victim of a freakishly complicated scheme to undermine her life in some pretty demented ways. As Sally seeks to clear her name and defeat those so intent on ruining her, the cast of characters expands greatly in this volume to include a fair number of gangsters from the various London underworld tribes (don't worry, they're the good guys), a few more fiends (Pullman can write a pretty good nemesis, if you ask me), and a delightfully troublesome little child.

As show more in The Shadow in the North, Pullman uses this book to discuss some worthwhile topics, including political persecution, the state of life for the working poor, and the treatment of immigrants in late Victorian England. Pulling these in without unduly interfering with the plot was a tricky proposition, but Pullman manages to carry it off remarkably well.

I figured out the mystery fairly early on, but that didn't diminish the excitement I felt as the end finally neared. A creepy, troubling work, and a fine one.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-review-tiger-in-well.html show less

The longest book in the series. Some parts of it are very good, for example the parts where Sally is rendered so immensely vulnerable by the fact that as a woman she has so few rights. I got really steamed at the ineffective condescension of her lawyer and the small-minded bullying of so many others she encountered in her difficulties. As with other books by Philip Pullman the protagonist must do something that seems uncharacteristically stupid in order to make her circumstances novelistically difficult; I was annoyed by her financial obtuseness. Her conversion to socialism while fighting for her life in the sewers is unintentionally funny and a bit of the adventure involving the ethnic gangs veers weirdly into Terry Pratchet show more territory.

I intend to read the Tin Princess; Philip Pullman is, and was when he wrote these books, a very talented writer. show less

This is the Last book of the Sally Lockhart Tales, which most curiously, I started FIRST. This may make little sense, but I started this book having no idea (at first) that this was the very last one. I quickly ordered in the others, feeling rather foolish at my mistake. However, I found my fingers fumbling through the pages of 'Tiger' at alarming speed. This was indeed an adventure of heart-thumping suspense,that HAD to be read despite fears of strong spoilers.

Sally is a strong female, successful, sassy, with financial independence, friends and family (oh, pardon me, this story takes place in 19th century England) whose luck in life takes a sudden horrible plunge when a stranger makes painfully elaborate plans to steal Sally Lockhart's show more daughter away from her.

I would dub this as a 'modern day Dickens' novel, if the term didn't sound so hammy. But this best describes the writing style of the book. The characters are seeping with social conscience, heart and emotions that tumble out effortlessly. Pullman provides excellent descriptions of life in Victorian England, making the world the characters inhabit fresh and real.

Sally's struggle is heartbreaking and we, as readers, can recognise her fears all too well. I imagine the weight of Sally's loss (of her money, life, friends, family) would be more strongly felt if I had read her previous adventures--however, the narrative does a good job at not making the reader feel isolated. This can be pretty much a standalone tale. It is aimed at a mature audience, and while it tears horribly at the heartstrings and shows a darker side of 19th century London--the writing is never distasteful or shocking.

Lesser known than 'His Dark Materials' but just as blindingly brilliant. show less

In the vein of a pure ‘penny-dreadful’ itself, The Tiger in the Well is a grand mystery, that entertained me from the very first page to the last – with one of the best end-lines ever uttered.

As with the previous story, this one follows on after a lapse of a few years; but Sally Lockhart’s now prosperous and comfortable life is upended within the first pages, and continues so, at break-neck speed. With perfect timing, when Jim Taylor and Webster Garland are away photographing in South America, leaving Sally at home with only her daughter, Harriet, and their loyal staff, a court summons is served, endangering everything Sally holds dear in her life. A Mr Parrish, claiming to be both Sally’s husband and Harriet’s father, with show more indisputable written evidence of both, and with the law strongly behind him, threatens Sally’s independence, wealth and, more importantly, custody of her child. Cognizant with her character, Sally does the unexpected; despite her sense of complete bewilderment and moments of mental fragility, she fights back.

Philip Pullman’s social commentary of Victorian England becomes even more Dickensian in this third novel. Against a backdrop of inflamed emotions, between the working poor of London and the influx of desperate refugees from Europe, the author creates another dark and disturbing tale, in particular, around the difficulties a solitary, independent, unmarried mother would encounter. And, as always, the book is filled with rich and compelling characters that charm, and menace, and succeed against all odds.

This is, indeed, an indictment of the history of this period – an interpretation of the mores of the time, which allowed the exploitation of the weak by the greedy and the brutal, due to the indifference, and blinding disinterest, of the rest of the populace. It is also a fast-paced, engrossing, captivating, and interesting read - and notwithstanding my absolute belief in our heroine to triumph from the very beginning, I happily followed along, engaged to the very end.

(Jun 3, 2008) show less

I may be an adult but at times reading this I was scared as to the possible outcome for Sally and Harriet, which makes this an amazing read. This is a very dark tale, with lots of social commentary, which works within the plot and adds lots of historical colour. Highly recommended.