I’ve always loved the boarding school scenario from my first adventures at Mallory Towers to Hogwarts so I was excited to visit Crookhaven – a secret school for crooks. Given the plethora of boarding school books out there, I know it’s not easy to create a unique world and the tropes can be overdone, but this series totally nails it.

Secret boarding school Quirky lessons Fun challenges Loveable rogues Robin Hood ethics

This series had me reading under the covers in the middle of the night. I haven’t done that since I was ten! I literally couldn’t put it down. When is book 3 coming out? I need it now!

It does lean on some scenes from Hogwarts – e.g. there is a river crossing with the first years (“crooklings”) to get to the school and a sorting ceremony into houses – but it is really well done. Good messages on teamwork and kindness, as well as the importance of practising skills (in fact it was nice to see this applied to lessons as I always tell students that writing is a skill and you can get better at it if you practice, just like you can get better at football if you practice).

My only complaint about the books is that there are a few references to playing/ walking on railway lines and this is NOT OK. I really don’t see why this is included – it’s not critical to the plot, and certainly not something we should in any way encourage.

Blurb: Crookhaven series

Book 1: The school for thieves

The first book in the ‘criminally good’ Crookhaven series, the secret school where students are taught to do wrong, so that one day, they can put the world to rights.

“So this is really a school for criminals.” It was meant as a question, though it came out more as an accusation.

“We are so much more than that,” Caspian said, sitting in a plush leather chair and gesturing for Gabriel to sit in a similar one across the table. “We are a home for the forgotten, a sanctuary for the lost and … yes, a training ground for the greatest crooks of the future.”

13-year-old Gabriel is a brilliant pickpocket, a skill which he uses to keep his often empty belly not quite so empty. And then one day, he’s caught.

But instead of being arrested, he is invited by the mysterious Caspian Crook to attend Crookhaven – a school for thieves. At Crookhaven, students are trained in lock-picking, forgery and ‘crim-nastics’, all with the intention of doing good out in the world, by conning the bad and giving back to the innocent.

But … can you ever really trust a thief?

With a school wide competition to be crowned Top Crook and many mysteries to uncover, Gabriel’s first year at Crookhaven will be one to remember… 

Book 2: The forgotten maze

It’s Gabriel’s second year at Crookhaven School for Thieves. And with a tricky Break-In challenge to the teacher’s section of the library to attempt, plus a new class called Reclamation, his Miscreant year is already off to a busy start. 

Then Gabriel and his friends learn about Maravel’s Maze. Hidden deep beneath the lake, forgotten about by the school, it’s a labyrinth of obstacles. Each tests a crook-related skill – and all are nearly impossible. 

But the impossible has never stopped Gabriel’s crew before, especially not when there’s something at the heart of the maze that they all desperately want…

#crookhavenschoolforthieves #netgalley