58. The Tiger in the Well (Sally Lockhart #3) by Philip Pullman

Now this is more like it!  I was quite frustrated by the structure and plot elements of the second book, The Shadow in the North, and that led me to some trepidation while reading this one.  The story starts a few years later.  Sally is established in her business and home and she has given birth to a daughter, Harriet, who is now a toddler.  All the men in her life are gone.  Jim and Garland Webster have left on an adventure of their own in South America.  The conflict starts immediately, although subtly, as Sally receives a legal summons.  At first, she treats it lightly as it is so absurd.  She is being sued by a man for abandonment who claims to be her husband.  He also wants Harriet.

As she looks into it, and deals with super weak and sexist legal representatives, the case becomes deadly serious and she truly risks losing her child, as well as all her assets and her business.  We quickly meet a truly nasty antagonist, the bland and professional seeming Mr. Parrish.  Meanwhile, we also follow the story of Jews fleeing the pogroms in Europe and arriving in London, where they are often exploited by criminals and attacked by racists or a combo of both.

These two storylines combine in a rich historical adventure that all center around Sally.  I was able to guess quite quickly who was behind it all and it was a bit frustrating that it took Sally so long.  That felt a bit manipulative on Pullman's part, though he explains himself away by basing it on her psychology (she knew all along but didn't want to face it; why?).  My distrust held back some of my enjoyment as Sally really goes through the wringer.  He pulls it out in the end, but the promise of a competent, extraordinary woman that the first book is set up is not fulfilled here in a lot of ways.  She spends much of the book being victimized and never gets to use her skills (no cool financial gamesmanship, she never shoots anybody).  This what we call deprotagonization in the tabletop RPG business.  For instance, in one scene when she is down to her last shillings and she pawns the watch that her father gave her and gets a super low price for it.  I get that Pullman wants her to be as desperate as possible, but this woman is super skilled at money and her dad taught her to be tough and street smart.  This could have been a good opportunity for her to show some mettle and skill and instead she meekly accepts the price.

The other characters and the situation is wild enough that once we start to see some hope, the book gets really fun.  Sally doesn't use her skills, but she is brave and resourceful and quite tough.  We get to see a lot of the lives and locations of the poor Jewish community and this is quite interesting and entertaining.  The finale is quite wild, a real page-turner, so much that I partially blame it for my insomnia and me writing this at almost 2 in the morning.  Too stimulating!

So some minor hiccups but overall this was an excellent adventure and I am glad I am working my way through this series.