Archibald Lox and the Sinkhole to Hell: Archibald Lox series, book 7 by Darren Shan

Archibald Lox and the Sinkhole to Hell: Archibald Lox series, book 7  by Darren Shan
Buy Archibald Lox and the Sinkhole to Hell: Archibald Lox series, book 7 by Darren Shan at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Jill Murphy
Summary: The plot thickens some more as Archie faces the hardest trial of his journey into the Merge so far. Can he protect his friends? Some trademark Darren Shan jeopardy in this instalment. We were on the edge of our seats!
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 187	Date: May 2022
Publisher: Home of the Damned
External links: Author's website
ISBN: B09Z2MTCZD
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Warning!

If you haven't yet read the first, the second and the third installments in this series, don't read this review! It may contain spoilers!

So.

We're back to the Merge with the first chapter in the third volume of Darren Shan's saga of Archibald Lox, a young man who can pick the locks of portals from our world to another, called the Merge. Since his last adventure, Archie has persuaded his foster parents into a slightly uneasy truce on the topic of his regular disappearances. They don't ask too many questions and Archie has settled into a fairly peaceful routine of visiting Winston, his lock-picking mentor in the Merge and showing Kojo, the young guardian, around our world of the Born. There's been little drama for a while...

... but of course, quiet periods don't last long in Darren Shan's book and Archie's adventures are about to begin all over again, when Inez shows up. King Lloyd, he of the glass teeth, the ruby red slippers and the tenuous grip on sanity, is dying. And he would like to see Archie before he moves on to the next sphere.  Lloyd's impending death is more important than most deaths among the Merge's royal families because Lloyd is the last of his line and if he dies without an heir, his whole realm of Diamond is expected to simply disappear...

... but nothing happens as expected, of course!

This installment of the saga perhaps has less in the way of high octane drama than some of the others. It's more reflective and we get a few further clues as to where the plot is going to take us next. We see some vulnerabilities in the Submerged, including Adil, the man who ordered Archie's torture. We learn that Archie is able to see auras and that he resembles someone he shouldn't resemble. What does this mean? And we're introduced to the Midwives. I won't tell you too much about them for fear of spoilers but I think they are going to play an important role going forward. I enjoyed this fact-finding installment. It's full of clues for the next ones and I just hope that I've spotted them all.

The whole thing ends on a cliffhanger as this relatively quiet - for Shan! - book ends with the return of some old horrors and jeopardy for Archie. So I think the next volume needs to find its way to me sharpish!

You'll find our review of the first book here. And if you enjoy short, sharp, thrilling, episodic stories, you could try Blade: Playing Dead by Tim Bowler. It's not set in a fantasy world but it sure does get those reading juices flowing! 

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You can read more book reviews or buy Archibald Lox and the Sinkhole to Hell: Archibald Lox series, book 7 by Darren Shan at Amazon.com.