The Hunchback Assignments, by Arthur Slade
Author: Arthur Slade
Genre: YA Fantasy / Steampunk
Pages: 288
"The large carriage rattled with grotesqueries -- bones of cats and pigs strung up as wind chimes, bleached bear skulls dangling from wires, and three shrunken monkey heads mounted on posts."
This is where Modo is found as a child -- living in a cage in a traveling freak show, exhibited as "L'enfant du Monstre" for his hunchback and other heavy deformities. A mysterious benefactor, Mr. Socrates, rescues him from this life and raises him in seclusion, with only his nursemaid and an instructor for company. He's trained in stealth, acrobatics, fighting, mathematics, history, and politics, and he is not allowed to look into a mirror until he is five years old. When he is finally given permission, his reflection horrifies him, but he learns that he has the incredible ability to shift his physical appearance to look like anyone else. This is when he learns he has been training to be a spy for the Permanent Association, a secret organization dedicated to protecting the British Empire. Though it strains him greatly, his shape-shifting ability makes him an ideal spy, if he can learn to use it properly. To see if Modo’s training has prepared him, Mr. Socrates drops him penniless in the middle of London, where he has to survive on his own. Modo, only fourteen years old, uses his training and abilities to start his own detective agency, wearing masks when he is not shape-shifting in order to blend in. Eventually, he is given his first assignment with the Permanent Association, teaming up with another young agent, Octavia Milkweed, and together they uncover a nefarious plan orchestrated by the Clockwork Guild to take over the British government. (I won’t spoil all of the Clockwork Guild’s diabolical plans, except to say that part of it involves a giant clockwork automaton waging war on the city.)
This story takes place in an alternative Victorian London that is smoky and atmospheric, with plenty of inventive steampunk science worked in seamlessly. The plot races along at a breakneck pace, involving lots of dangerous undercover assignments and daring escapes for Modo, but what I really love about this story is Modo himself - he is crafty but also compassionate, and his insecurity about his true appearance, especially after he meets Octavia, is heart-breaking. His dependence on masks to hide his true identity is telling. Mr. Socrates is also a weighty character -- though he rescued Modo from a life as a circus freak, he is not a kind person, and his motivations for taking Modo in are complex. Mr. Socrates remains an inscrutable force: does he truly care for Modo, or is he just using him for his special abilites? I can't wait to see more of them in the next book, titled The Dark Deeps.