When, despite precautions, Philomela is kidnapped by her pursuers, Cratchit-assisted by a shrewd warbling urchin known as Colin the Melodious-resolves to fulfill his 'great calling' in life by mounting a rescue. Timothy's concern leads him to protect a third possessively marked waif, the frightened and suspicious Philomela-who, he soon realizes, is being sought by a knife-loving former Scotland Yard inspector and a moneyed, malevolent voluptuary. When we first encounter Timothy, during the Christmas season of 1860, he's vexed by the discovery of two dead 10-year-old girls, each branded with the letter 'G'-one found in an alley, the other fished from the Thames River by Cratchit and a voluble old salt who makes his money by finding (and then robbing, of course) errant corpses.

Timothy, is haunted by the spirit of his late father-a man whose optimism and strength the son feels himself incapable of imitating. Only now he's a 'mostly able-bodied' 23 years old, resides in a London whorehouse in exchange for tutoring the madam, struggles to wean himself from financial dependence on his ancient 'Uncle' Ebenezer Scrooge, and, as we learn in Louis Bayard's darkly enchanting historical thriller, Mr.

The sight of their horror-struck faces compels Timothy to become the protector of another young girl, Philomela, from the fate the others suffered at the hands of a dangerous and powerful man.Tiny Tim is back! No, not the squeaky-voiced troubadour who tip-toed through tulips in the 1960s, but the original-Timothy Cratchit, the crutch-wielding tyke from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Timothy's life takes a sharp turn when he discovers the bodies of two dead girls, each seared with the same cruel brand on the upper arm. He boards at a brothel in exchange for teaching the mistress how to read and spends his nights dredging the Thames for dead bodies and the treasures in their pockets. He's also struggling to bury his past as a cripple and shed his financial ties to his benevolent 'Uncle' Ebenezer by losing himself in the thick of London's underbelly.

Timothy Cratchit, not the pious child the world thought he was, has just buried his father. Lincoln comes a different kind of Christmas story featuring a grown up Tiny Tim, this breathless flight through the teeming markets, shadowy passageways, and rolling brown fog of 1860s London would do Dickens proud for its surprising twists and turns, and its extraordinary heart.

Mr timothy by louis bayard