Bureau of Mysteries by HJ Harper

This book is set in a small town called Little Obscurity in the late 1800s and is about a boy called George Feather, aged 12 (who is a chimney sweep) joins a secret society called the Bureau of Mysteries. He discovers this organisation when his boss (Ezekiel Grimes, better known as Grimy) takes him to the Brass Castle Hotel to clean the chimneys. George is basically Grimy's spy, bringing him back any juicy info so he could blackmail the manager for more money. When George climbs up the chimney he immediately panics, he had never been up a chimney this high before. He loses his grip on the side of the chimney. Instead of landing on a log fireplace he lands on a corridor with a door at the end. When he reaches the door he finds a note, it says "the Clockwork Octopus Society will finish what they started."
When George joins the Bureau of Mysteries he meets Hobb, the brains of the operation, Tempora the engineer and Imp, the experienced cryptographer (which means code cracker.)
When George joins he becomes an apprentice cryptographer and all of them together must defeat the Clockwork Octopus Society.
The first criminal is called Phil Lament, the engineer of the gang with his mechanical arm. George defeats him in a epic battle in the town's clock tower but Phil almost escapes on his mechanical dragon!
The second criminal is called Lady Lenora Ravenscroft (she can talk to ghosts!) This time George and Imp stop her from stealing all of Little Obscurity's wealthiest people's gems and capture her three ghost cronies, Rishin, Tom and Paul T. Giest.
The third criminal is called Dr. Morry Artery, the brains of the gang. George and Imp find him in the drowned quarter of Little Obscurity which is the underwater part of the town. The Dr. has an army of murkmaids (which are people but have been mutated into fish bodies and have been stripped of their memory), and a prisoner called whalen (half man-half whale.) They catch the Dr. when he tries to escape in his Octopod (a submarine in the shape of a octopus.)
The final battle is against the leader of the gang which is suprisingly Grimy! Imp warns the Bureau of mysteries and Hobb and Tempora change the Brass Castle Hotel into a brick person and crush Grimy. The end shows George becoming a full member of the Bureau of Mysteries.
I liked this book because of its funny illustrations and funny characters. Rating: 9 out of 10!!

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