What We’re Reading

The New Policeman | Kate Thompson

Rating:

J.J. Liddy has a happy life. His family is close, and content in all things, except for time. In fact, it seems to everyone that time is slipping away. Buses are always late. There are things that never get done. But some things, like the ceilis his family holds, run like clockwork, and can be counted on. And J.J. is happy to be part of the festivities. Once a dancer, now a musician, J.J. shares his people’s love of music.

After hearing some dire news from his best friend, he spent a brief day as J.J. Byrne, but once his mother set him straight, he became even more determined to continue his old way. Sadly, while he set out with the best of intentions, he never arrives.

Gone to reconcile with his friend Jimmy, J.J. is sent first to Anne Korff’s, to deliver the cheese she had come for earlier and left behind. Anne in turn takes him to a souterrain, leading him through to a mythical land most no longer know of. Sure that his desire to buy his mother time, his promised birthday gift to her, Anne leaves him with a warning he doesn’t understand, and takes herself back home.

In this new realm where time seems barely to move, J.J. finds it hard to have a care. Aside from his worry for the dog Bran, whose hind leg dangles my a thread, and an insistent nagging at the back of his mind, J.J. quite likes this new world. Especially the music.

But he comes to learn that the residents of this happy place are not themselves happy. You see, they’ve got time, which they’ve never had before. Happy to sell it to him for “Dowd’s Number Nine,” all are saddened when they realize J.J. doesn’t know any more than they do how to take the time back. He takes it upon himself, with the help of Aengus Og, to try to find a way.

Their search for the leak leads them high and low and to a few surprises, though in the end it all adds up for J.J. Even the socks.

A very unique read, with a page of music between each chapter, The New Policeman is sure to please not only music lovers and fantasy dwellers, but anyone who loves a good tale.

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The The New Policeman | Kate Thompson by Jaemi, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 1:06 pm by Jaemi and is filed under Book Review. Find similar posts by selecting and of the following tags: adventure, faeries, fantasy, magic, mystery, ya fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.