THE BLOOD STONE
By Jamila Gavin
Egmont, £10.99; 320pp
ISBN 1 4052 0927 5

Venice has become the setting of choice for new children’s fiction. Its shifting, shimmering interlacing of beauty and corruption suggest mystery and magic. Jamila Gavin’s The Bloodstone begins in the heart of one of its trades — the jeweller Geronimo Veroneo possesses an exquisite diamond, the Ocean of the Moon.

The real-life Geronimo went to India and was briefly attributed with having designed the Taj Mahal. Gavin, who excels at spinning convincing character and motivations of people touched by history, has dreamt up the story of how his youngest son, Filippo, is lured out to the Far East to save his father from imprisonment.

With the Ocean of the Moon stitched into his scalp by a Jewish rabbi, and a virtually indistinguishable fake about his person, brave young Filippo must travel in the company of a Musalman to far-off Kabul. Matters have gone ill with the Veroneo family following the disappearance of their impetuous, foolhardy head. His sister Elisabetta is married off to Pagliarin, a brute and a crook, who, bankrupt, also wants the precious jewel. Is the Musalman a crook, or is Pagliarin the greater threat?

Twelve-year-old Filippo, like Telemachus in The Odyssey, has to tread warily between a multitude of lying, scheming adults. As in Coram Boy, her masterpiece that won the Whitbread Prize, Gavin depicts courage, loyalty and sensitivity with passion and insight. She has in fact told this story already, in Danger by Moonlight (published last year), but this is a longer novel, with the story of Filippo’s embattled family fully explored. Filippo believes the diamond sewn into his scalp is his “third eye”, enabling him to see into men’s souls, and as he travels from Crete to the court of the Great Mogul to bargain for his father, he is able to perceive the fates of those he loves. Elements of magic creep into the story, although these could be the delirium brought on by heat, a desert storm and sickness. When he eventually gets to Hindustan, it is his friendship with little Prince Murad that saves his life, but his attraction to the beautiful English girl Noor that ensures that the diamond is exchanged for his father.

Yet although it is a rich, absorbing tale, The Blood Stone lacks the tightly plotted satisfactions of Coram Boy, becoming increasingly skimpy and overstretched towards the end. There are too many sudden reversals of trust and fortune at the Mogul’s court to make this the great children’s novel it could have been had its story remained in Venice.

Read on

• Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin (Egmont, £5.99) 9+
• Stravaganza: City of Masks by Mary Hoffman (Bloomsbury, £5.99) 9+
• The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke (Chicken House, £5.99) 9+
• Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli (Walker, £10.99) 11+

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