Wild Boy. By Rob Lloyd Jones. 5 CDs. 5:48 hrs. Brilliance Audio, 2013. ISBN 978-1480518582. $54.97. Gr 5–8–The carnival is coming to town, complete with a travelling freak show. Its newest member, purchased by the routinely violent and drunk showman, is Wild Boy, so named because he is covered head to toe in hair. Abandoned as a baby on the steps of a workhouse, Wild Boy learned that the best was to survive being taunting and beaten was to keep silent—but he was always watching everything. When a fellow carny member is murdered, Wild Boy must join forces with his archnemesis, Clarissa, a young acrobat, to prove their innocence. He uses his amazing, Sherlock Holmes-like deduction skills to solve the mystery. Along the way, he makes a few friends, painfully loses one, and is taken under the wing of the Lord Mayor. After a double-take revealing of the murderer, listeners learn that “there are (more) puzzles to be solved,” leaving the door open for sequels. Jones’s brilliant writing (Candlewick, 2013) paints a vivid picture of the seedy, murky underworld of Victorian London: sewage and rats, slinking shadows, and secret tunnels hidden behind picture frames. The talented narration of James Clamp brings the story to life with unique voices, such as the hooded man’s slithering, gritty hiss, and his tones and inflections when describing inanimate objects (greasy cobbles, lamplight’s queasy glow, slimy nets). A top pick!–Cheryl ­Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City Schools, OH