
Fourteen-year-old identical twins Sadie and Saskia Dopple are residents of Isambard Dunstan's School for Wayward Children. Their mother dropped them off there years earlier, saying she'd be back to get them, but she has never returned. They are not happy there, as the school is run by an overbearing headmistress - but the girls are rather bratty themselves, constantly causing trouble in the school.
When one one of the twins is adopted by a strange but wealthy woman, but the other is left behind, the girls are heartbroken by the separation. Saskia is taken away to a spooky old mansion where odd things are happening. Sadie gets into trouble at school, and when matters come to a head she flees, aided by fellow teen Erik Morrissey Ganger (yes, he's named after the musician), who was abandoned by his father, a skilled thief, at the school years earlier. As Sadie and Erik, on the run from the school, stumble into one dangerous situation after another as they try to get to Saskia, Saskia discovers a truly heinous scheme afoot in her new home.

There are lots of fun, Gothic touches along the way: a mysterious, forbidden portrait covered by a cloth so that no one can see it; a ghostly woman who teaches Saskia manners in her new home; a maniacal magician with a bizarre contraption in his basement - what's not to like? The story ends with a satisfying conclusion, but also leaves a few juicy loose ends so readers will be eager to move on to the next installment in the series, The Secret of Indigo Moon.
My only complaint about this book is that it is not bound very well. Already several pages have fallen out of my copy, which has been treated very gently. That is a shame, and unfortunately it is a situation that occurs more and more frequently with books these days. My library system does not own this series, and I hesitate to recommend that we purchase it, because it is hardly worth buying books that will have to be mended - or discarded - so quickly, particularly given our current budget crisis.

Also by G.P. Taylor: Mariah Mundi: The Midas Box
The Dopple Ganger Chronicles: The First Escape (#1 in the Dopple Ganger Chronicles) by G.P. Taylor; illustrated by Daniel Boultwood, Joseph Sapulich and Stephen Vosloo (Tyndale House Publishers, 2008)
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Becky's Book Reviews: "I thought it had a very promising start. The writing, the descriptions, the humor. But by the end of the book, I was finding it a bit tiresome"
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