Death and the Arrow

by Chris Priestley

  Tom’s face lit up and then just as quickly fell. “I would love to, Dr. Harker,” he said. “But I cannot. As I have told you, my father needs me in the printing house. I cannot desert him.”

  “I have already spoken to your father and he has given his consent,” said the doctor. “He has taken on an apprentice of his own.”

  “He has?” said Tom, surprised that his father had not mentioned this to him.

  “Yes, Tom,” said Ocean. “Me!” Tom looked amazed. “What’s this?” laughed Ocean. “You don’t think I’d make a worthy apprentice? I’m hurt! Sore hurt!”

  Tom laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “I can think of none better,” he said, and turned to Dr. Harker with a grin. “Well, then, I shall be proud to be your assistant, Doctor.”

  “Splendid,” said Dr. Harker. “It has been quite an adventure, has it not? I think that it might make a diverting story, written down well. I will have a word with your father this very day about the possibility of publishing a small book. Now, who’s for coffee?”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHRIS PRIESTLEY is a writer and illustrator who has published several works of fiction and nonfiction for young readers in the United Kingdom. He lives with his family in Norfolk, England. This is his first book for Knopf.

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Text and interior illustrations copyright © 2003 by Chris Priestley

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

  Published in the United States of America by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House

  Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Distributed by Random

  House, Inc., New York. Originally published in Great Britain by Doubleday,

  an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, in 2003.

  KNOPF, BORZOI BOOKS, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  www.randomhouse.com/teens

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Priestley, Chris.

  Death and the arrow / by Chris Priestley. — 1st American ed.

  p. cm.

  “A Borzoi book.”

  Summary: After his friend Will, a pickpocket in London in 1715, is murdered as part

  of a series of mysterious deaths, fifteen-year-old Tom Marlowe asks his friend

  Dr. Harker to help find the killer.

  [1. Murder—Fiction. 2. London (England)—History—18th century—Fiction.

  3. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Title.

  PZ7.P93445De 2003

  [Fic]—dc21

  2002043260

  May 2003

  First American Edition

  www.randomhouse.com

  eISBN: 978-0-307-43327-5

  v3.0