Young Hector decides to take revenge upon the man who caused his fa ther’s demise. Hector’s passion for lepidopterology and his talent for posing and solving riddles prove the means by which he can pursue the perpetrator (whose own obsession for collecting glass eyes keeps him on the move). Hec tor enters a world where deception is the norm and seemingly the only way to change one’s station in life. Readers of Higgins’s previous books, The Black Book of Secrets and The Bone Magician, will recognize characters and places where and for whom the line between anonymity and notoriety is precarious. 2010 USBBY Outstanding International Books List. bef

Originally published by Macmillan Children’s Books Great Britain, in 2009.