Book Review: Murder at Night by Avi

Murder at Night by Avi
Rating:  Worth My Time
Reviewed by Cam (Teen Reviewer)

The book Murder at Midnight is about a boy named Fabrizio who is a
risk-taker, daring, and desperate, and a magician named Mangus who is bossy, defensive, and crafty. Fabrizio is desperate to please his bossy master, Mangus, or else he will have to go back to living on the streets. When treasonous papers start popping up all over the city of Pergamontio, DeLaBina comes to Mangus and accuses him of making them because he thinks they were “magically” made. This is where Mangus gets defensive. Mangus is crafty because the king believes in magic, and Mangus does it secretly so he won’t get arrested.

The mystery of this book is that someone is trying to overthrow the king, and no one knows who. Fabrizio ties to keep his master from being executed by interrogating everyone who he thinks is a suspect.  He meets a new friend, Maria, in the prison, who says she is the one who made the papers and shows him a printing press. The climax is when Fabrizio has too many clues to put together and a lot of people are lying. He knows that the other slave, Guiseppue, was paid to destroy the prinitng press.  Prince Cosimo says the Count did it and the Count says the Prince did it. Also, someone stabbed DeLaBina with the king’s dagger and he met a mysterious figure in a black robe wearing a red boot.

I rate this book “worth my time” because it was solved to my satisfaction, but was kind of hard to follow. It kept me interested all the way through, and that’s why I recommend this book. When Fabrizio is putting all the pieces together, he comes up with a very interesting plan that  leads to a very exciting ending! That is why I like this book.