Benny Kaminsky and Thunderbolt Dobney lead a rag-tag gang of neighborhood rowdies. Their territory is the New Cut on London's South Bank—a place bristling with swindlers, bookies, pickpockets, and the occasional policeman. And their aim is to solve crimes.
When counterfeit coins start showing up in their neighborhood, Thunderbolt fears his own father may be behind the crime. But his friends devise a way to trap the real culprit. Then the gang takes on the case of some stolen silver. They have just two clues—a blob of wax, and an unusually long match. But even this slippery thief is unmasked by the determined kids of the New Cut.
Filled with silly sleuthing, improbable disguises, crazy ruses, and merry mayhem, these stories are action-packed romps from one of the best storytellers ever—Philip Pullman.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Two Detective Stories for kids
By M. Fuller
Two Crafty Criminals by Phillip Pullman is a collection of two stories, featuring a group of young detectives called the New Cut Gang, that were previously published individually in '96 and '98. The stories really are separate from each other and even feature different gang members. The first story, Thunderbolt's Waxwork, follows Sam/Thunderbolt as he tries to figure out who is making the fake currency that has been showing up all over town. His father is suspected, and even Thunderbolt is not entirely sure of his Dad's innocence. Thankfully he has his friends in the New Cut Gang to help him get to the bottom of this mystery. The second story, The Gas fitters ball, features the mischievous twins Angela and Zerlina. Their friends (older) are in love, but having a hard time becoming engaged. To make matters worse, someone has stolen the silver from the Gas Fitters dance hall!I liked the stories, and thought the mysteries were fun and entertaining. I laughed out loud a few times and got into the plot line. This is one of those instances, where I could tell you about the characters, like Sharky who eats everything, Thunderbolt, and how he is brainy but clumsy, or over-imaginative Benny who solves crimes but also gets carried away and it would sound like a hoot. The trouble I had with this book is, it sort of fell flat in the character department. I mean, we are quickly told who these kids are, but then we never really see it. It mentions more than once that Thunderbolt is excluded out of certain tasks because he is clumsy, but I never once saw him trip or mess up. Sharky was one of my favorite characters and he and Bridie are only mentioned in passing in the second story. I had a hard time remembering who the characters were and felt like I picked this book up mid-series. I know it's hard to balance action and characters in the middle reader age group, but this one fell short for me. There was even a case where the author says that Thunderbolt is only called Sam, except when he is on detective duty but later his Dad calls him Thunderbolt. I know it sounds like I am being nitpicky here, but I felt like the mysteries were fun but the people not as much. The author told us who the people were, but failed to really show it with a few exceptions.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Great for Grandpa to Read Aloud to His Grandkids!
By M. Lee
As a mother who screens - or tries to anymore - everything her 13-year-old daughter reads, it's been a while since I read anything by Philip Pullman. Of course, we all know "His Dark Materials" trilogy and "Sally Lockhart" series - but I also enjoyed, when said daughter was much younger, "The Firework Maker's Daughter." I think it's a testament to the genius of the writer, no matter his politics or religious views, that he is able to amass such a varied body of work. "Two Crafty Criminals" is a bind-up re-print of the adventures of the New Cut Gang, first featured in "Thunderbolt's Waxwork" (1994) and "The Gasfitter's Ball"(1995). This is a perfect middle-school introduction to the currently popular steampunk genre. I loved reading about the escapades of these incorrigible kids! The language and tone of the book was perfect, perfect, perfect for the era, and the voice of the characters totally age-appropriate. The best thing about the book? My daughter actually laughed out loud while she was reading it - as did I! Said daughter's review follows:"'Two Crafty Criminals! And How They Were Captured by the Daring Detectives of the New Cut Gang' by Philip Pullman was a funny novel about how sometimes kids really *are* the best detectives ..."Benny - the leader and genius of the New Cut Gang"Thunderbolt - his right hand man. Bit clumsy but has a good heart."Bridie - with typical Irish red hair and red temper, she helps out with the action parts"Benny - (Irish) Bridie's little brother. Will eat *anything* from wax to cork to humbugs."Angela and Zerlina - Italian twins that look like angels and act like devils."These are the members of the New Cut Gang. When, in the summer of 1895, someone starts passing around counterfeit money and stealing antique silver, can the gang solve the mystery if who is doing it? And meanwhile, can they help their friends with their various dreams, from becoming a waxwork dummy to proposing to their girls?"My favorite character would have to either be Bridie, Angela or Zerlina. Of course, they are all girls, but I like how Bridie pretends to be so fierce but will protect her friends, no matter what, and I like how Angela and Zerlina come up with all these crazy plans and actually making them work."My favorite part would have to be when Angela, Zerlina, and Orlando broke Dick out of prison. That was funny!"I would totally give this book five stars: two stars for the plot, two stars for the characters, and one star for the general cuteness of the book! :-)"
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.a children's books perfect for adults
By Miss Ivonne
I truly loved the books of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy -- Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass -- despite a streak of darkness in that magical children's series, but I was totally put off by Pullman's contrarian cruelty in the second of the Sally Lockhart mysteries, The Shadow of the North, which I quit reading even though I was nearly to the end.Despite that, Two Crafty Criminals!: and how they were Captured by the Daring Detectives of the New Cut Gang looked so cheery and so unlike Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke: A Sally Lockhart Mystery and The Shadow in the North: A Sally Lockhart Mystery that I decided to take another chance on him. Like The Water-Babies, A Wrinkle in Time, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Book Thief or The Magic Thief -- other children's books beloved by adults -- Two Crafty Criminals! will reward any adult who abandons the widespread prejudice against children's classics.Set in late 19th century Lambeth, combines two slim volumes that Pullman published in the 1990s: Thunderbolt's Waxwork (New Cut Gang) and The New Cut Gang: The Gas-Fitters' Ball. Two Crafty Criminals! describes the exploits of a gang of street urchins led by the bespectacled Sam "Thunderbolt" Dobney and the charismatic Benny Kaminsky. In the first book, set in 1894, when someone starts passing counterfeit coins in Lambeth and the New Cut, Thunderbolt's inventor father gets the blame. The boys and girls in the gang decide to discover the real culprit -- which they do after a number of madcap adventures. In the second, set the following year, the gang tracks down the thief who pilfered £10,000 worth of antique silver from the Gas-fitters' Hall and manage to ensure that a sweet, young couple get engaged. But the resolutions come only after some comic adventures worthy of a 19th century melodrama, including a daring jail break orchestrated by New Cut Gang members, Zerlina and Angela Peretti, redoubtable twins "pretty as angels, and so wicked they were hardly human" (p. 136) and an electrifying revelation of the thief at the eponymous Gas-fitter's Ball. I don't know if the title serves as an homage to an episode, "The Tragedy of the Gasfitter's costume (fancy-dress) ball," in an old 1950s radio series featuring Sherlock Holmes, but I can't see how it could be otherwise.Pullman provides an unabashedly Dickensian cast of characters. (Who could forget the child-like old roasted-chestnut seller, Dippy Hitchcock; the clever, kind-hearted Bridie Malone, the love-sick but tongue-tied young gas-fitter Dick Smith, the lugubrious strongman Orlando, the fearsome bookie "Snake Eyes" Melmott, or the voracious "Sharkey" Bob Malone, for instance?) This narrative delights readers, young or old, with unlikely disguises, clever traps, humorous situations and various hijinks worthy of any Victorian pulp novel.These books were apparently meant to launch a new mystery series aimed at children, but no other volume has appeared in nearly 20 years; now, with Pullman laboring with The Book of Dust, which builds on His Dark Materials, it's unlikely that we'll ever hear more from the New Cut Gang. That's too bad because I thoroughly enjoyed these lighthearted books, which read like a cross between the Dead-End Kids, London edition, and the Baker Street Irregulars, with a soupçon of Our Gang thrown in for good measure.
