Malamander (An Eerie-on-Sea Mystery)

Product Information

Author Thomas Taylor talks to Ian Eagleton about his new book Malamander, Greek myths, mysteries and monsters, and his exciting plans for a sequel… You can find out more about Thomas Taylor and his work here!

Violet thinks Eels looks “booky” and he gives her the creeps. Herbie calls him “a bit full of himself.” Herbert Lemon, Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel, knows that returning lost things to their rightful owners is not easy – especially when the lost thing is not a thing at all, but a girl. No one knows what happened to Violet Parma’s parents twelve years ago, and when she engages Herbie to help her find them, the pair discover that their disappearance might have something to do with the legendary sea-monster, the Malamander. Eerie-on-Sea has always been a mysteriously chilling place, where strange stories seem to wash up. And it just got stranger...The book dispensary has an animatronic mermonkey, a monkey that “has the lower body of a fish” and dispenses the identification code for a book that it feels the reader needs. Jenny, who owns the dispensary says, “It’s the book that chooses you.” Herbie also tells Violet that many believe the machine to have “a sense of humor, too” because Herbie “met a man once who swears he belched in front of the mermonkey and got dispensed a copy of Gone with the Wind.” Eels uses the egg to transform malamander into a tentacle-ridden sea creature to restrain Boat Hook Man. “As we watch, the scaly corpse of the monster quivers and splits, and dozens of fleshy tendrils shoot up from it.” Eels then magically replaces Boat Hook Man’s hook with a crab pincer. Boat Hook Man uses it “to cut through one of the tentacles holding him by using his new claw.” In response, Eels turns Boat Hook Man “into a mass of squid and jellyfish and sea slime.” It is a mysterious and exciting story that is full of adventure. Some scenes seem based on Harry Potter, but only to the correct extent so that the reader can appreciate some similarities without feeling it excessive.

Malamander is a thrilling sea-side adventure that moves on at pace. With chapters that end on cliff-hangers it is a very difficult book to put down as you find yourself desperate to know what will happen next. In the author’s notes we learn that Taylor lives by the sea and enjoys everything about the beach. His connection to the seaside and love for the beach shine through in his writing. The egg can vaguely communicate telepathically with its holder. “In the captain’s wondering mind, a thousand voices seemed to whisper as one: I can make your dreams come true.”A simile is a way to describe something by comparing it to something else. The two things are seemingly different but share a characteristic. It is important that similes make sense to create the correct effect. My rating out of five stars ⭐️ would be ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I wish it was longer or had other books in a series of events to find both the malamander and the missing parents. It is filled with tension and with danger lurking at every turn as Herbie and the strange girl race around the town searching for clues and trying to uncover the mystery of her missing parents. Along the way they encounter an eclectic mix of characters, some trustworthy, some shady and some are downright dangerous. People that at first seem friends become foes and foes become friends - you are never quite sure exactly who someone is and Taylor keeps readers guessing right until the end. The character names have been carefully chosen, as have the place names and it all makes for delightful reading.