Whatever Happened to Tiny Tim?

It’s Christmas, and Bob Cratchit has just passed away. Tiny Tim is all grown up, and trying to put his past behind him.  He’s also trying to break away from his “Uncle” Ebenezer, who forces Tim to visit once a year or so in order to collect his allowance. Tim’s living at a brothel and teaching the madam how to read. He also spends his nights with an old sea captain dredging the Thames for dead bodies and the treasures in their pockets.

While doing his dirty work, Tim discovers the bodies of two dead girls, each seared with a brand on her upper arm, each looking as if she had been scared to death. Tim finds another girl, a live one, and tries to protect her from the same fate. Philomela is a resourceful little girl, but she needs the protection Tim offers.

Tim investigates what has happened to the little girls and tracks everything back to a wealthy aristocrat who is running a nasty business out of his very fancy home. I have to wonder if there really was that much child prostitution in the Victorian era, but I guess there are disgusting people everywhere all the time. Either way, Tim gets to the bottom of it, but not without a lot of people getting hurt in the process.

Bayard makes Tim Cratchit a whole new person while still keeping things mostly Dickensian. It’s a well-written and interesting book, definitely a page turning.