Paperback, 375 pages
English language
Published Nov. 20, 2012 by HarperCollins Publishers.
When his uncle sends him to work at the mysterious Stallery Mansion, twelve-year-old Conrad Tesdinic overcomes his bad karma and discovers in the mansion's winecellar the source of the magic that threatens to pull his world into one of the eleven other parallel universes.
I really liked the idea driving this one.
Fifth in the Chrestomanci series, a young adult fantasy series about parallel worlds and the magic users able to move through them. In this book we meet Conrad, sent by his uncle to infiltrate the great house at Stallings as an apprentice valet, where he meets Christopher, the apprentice to the great magician Chrestomanci, also acting as an apprentice valet while he searches for a missing friend. Two young boys, a Downton Abbey-like backdrop, and sinister magical goings-on to investigate... pretty typical YA theme but well executed.
