Mind the Gap by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon

Jasmine Towne, or Jazz, as she likes to be called, lives alone with her mother in a small house in London. For as long as Jazz can remember, she and her mother have lived under care of the men they called "Uncles". But her mother was afraid of them as much as she relied on their money, and she taught Jazz to be just as paranoid as she was.

One day, Jazz comes home from school and realizes that something about her house has changed. Sneaking her way through the attic of her neighbor's semi-detatched house into her own, she finds her mother with her throat cut, and the words "Jazz Hide Forever" written by her mother in her own blood. Through listening to the conversations of the Uncles waiting in the house, and a woman named Josephine Blackwood, she realizes that Josephine killed her mother, and they are looking for her, to kill her, too.

Jazz flees the house, and with limited money and nowhere to go, enters the Underground, the subway system that services London. Travelling through a forgotten doorway in the Underground Line, she stumbles on a gathering of Ghosts from the Great War, still going about their business as if it was still 1944 and the Blitz still going on. Seeking refuge from the ghosts, she stumbles into an air raid shelter, somehow stocked with great quantities of things: food, clothing, drinks, torches (flashlights) and batteries. When she hears someone coming, she hides in a cupboard holding coats and jackets. But an incautious movement gives her away and she meets the young thieves and their master who call themselves "The United Kingdom", and seeks shelter with them after telling them an abbreviated version of her story.

But while they teach her to steal and deceive along with them, Jazz wants something more: revenge. And when Cadge, a member of the United Kingdom whom Jazz was coming to feel something for, is beaten to death by a man she recognizes as one of the "Uncles", the rest of the United Kingdom, including Harry, the old man who leads them, wants revenge on them as well. In burgling the houses of the men connected with the Mayor who sent his men out to crack down on thievery in London and so killed Cadge, she meets Terence, a thief whose father was a wizard, and who has dedicated his life to finding and rebuilding his father's final creation: a machine that will suck all the old magic and ghosts from London, letting it break free of the past and reinvent itself again for the coming future.

Jazz has stolen one of the final pieces needed to reconstruct the machine, and Terence needs her to return it to him so he can accomplish the task his father gave his life for. Terence says he wants to give Jazz a better life, and indeed, he seems to have a much better life than the one she has had in the United Kingdom. But can she trust anything he says?

But even with the piece she holds, the battery to power the machine is missing, and it seems that everyone: Terrence, Harry, and the group of wizards who are known to Jazz as the Uncles, are looking for it. But with everyone lying to her or not telling her the full story, can Jazz discover the whole truth of who her father was and why the Uncles took care of her and her mother for years, and why they just as abruptly killed her mother and withdrew their protection? Or will she fall victim to their plot to keep the magic forever and use it for their own ends? Can she find the truth amid the lies and deceit?

Wow. This novel really was something else! As soon as I started reading, I was grabbed by the story, and barring only a few toilet breaks and a meal, I read it through from start to finish, almost literally unable to put it down. Jazz's voice is so strong and realistic that even when you realize that the story is as much fantasy as reality, it still feels real, and makes you accept the idea of ghosts, magic and fantastic machines that can pull all the old magic out of London and leave it to start anew.

It's not just Jazz that is a strong character in this book. All the characters are strong, with a delicious edge of realism that makes them seem as if they have a true and real life beyond the pages of the book. Every single one of them, which is plenty rare in any kind of writing, especially fantasy. Although this book could be percieved as YA, since Jazz is only a teenager herself and sex is nonexistent, in practice, it reads more like an adult novel.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy or even those who just like to read. Going far beyond the category of fantasy in its excellence and with writing that sucks you in from the first page, this is a book I will be suggesting to anyone with a love of good writing. Check it out.