A laugh-out-loud, edge-of-your-seat time-travel adventure perfect for fans of The Last Last-Day-of-Summer and City Spies from NYT bestseller, Kyrstal Sutherland.

Twelve-year-old orphan Nim Nottingham is a loner, and that's just the way he likes it. The only friend he's ever needed is his dog, Winnie. The bands of unattended children in wartime London wouldn't have Nim anyway. So he passes the time between rolling blackouts fence-climbing, roof-jumping, and gargoyle-perching. And when he's not running from the whistle of bombs falling through the air, he's scrounging for food.

The night Nim and Winnie come across the creepy and recently bombed-out Gravenhurst Manor, Nim can't believe his luck. Get in. Get out. Quick as a flash. Sell whatever spoils he finds for food. At least that was the plan until Mouse, a member of the Dead End Kids, invites himself along for the heist.

Gravenhurst is even creepier on the inside, and amidst the shattered glass and crumbling walls, Nim and Mouse don't find much of value. Still, they press deeper into the dark bowels of the mansion, where Nim finds the secret nightmarish laboratory of a mad scientist. In the laboratory, Nim also unearths a safe. At last. Even though the safe has a foul smell and is crawling with insects, Nim cracks it open. But instead of riches, there's only a single, lit black candle. Confused and frustrated, Nim accidentally extinguishes the candle and unwittingly unleashes a shadow monster onto the streets of London, barely avoiding its bite before it slinks out into the night.

It's the last thing he wants to do, but when the shadow monster attacks Winnie--and it's clear the adults are too distracted by the war to help--Nim forms an uneasy alliance with Mouse and the other unattended children of London to end the shadow monster's reign of terror.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Published: 10/21/2025
ISBN: 9780593616321
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 8.25h x 5.50w x 0.69d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 07/21/2025