Lethal Innocence

Lizzie #1

by J. Robert Whittle

Nine-year-old Lizzie Short is street smart and spunky. She needs to be, for living on the streets in the harsh environment of Eastside London in the early 19th century, has been anything but easy, especially for a girl. Lizzie, however, is no ordinary girl and when her four friends are deported to Australia (at beginning of the story) for merely stealing food, she finds herself forced to begin a new life and she is up for the challenge. This Canadian bestselling novel is the heartwarming story of a homeless young girl who through a series of incidents, changes the direction of her life and soon gains a reputation for her compassion, credible business decisions, and imaginative feats of daring adventure. Lizzie has an intriguing way of dealing with people - her friend, Quon Lee, the Chinese boy who lives in a barrel, her adopted father, Joe, and the many other memorable characters of all ages and walks of life who frequent the dockland area on the Thames. The combination of loyalty, frivolity and family life depicted in this remarkable story of ordinary working-class people is an excellent achievement lacking both sexual innuendo and scenes of gratuitous violence. Recognized internationally as a delightful, multi-cultural, multi-generational read, these books are applauded by homeschoolers, libraries and school teachers in many countries. This volume has also been recommended reading for at least several colleges and university English Lit. classes. Whittle has also written the bestselling series, the Victoria Chronicles (Bound by Loyalty and Loyalty's Reward) set in the Pacific Northwest (Victoria BC and Seattle WA) 1900-1917.

Genres: Historical, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

I'm a retired coal mining engineer who was born in Yorkshire, England and helped to raise my 8 younger siblings. I also had an older sister but I didn't help much with her! At the age of 19 I become the youngest mining engineer in England's history, too young to even claim my degree. Instead, the British Coal Board under whose scholarship I had gained the degree, hired me. At 24, they kindly gave me probably the most dangerous job known at the time ... leading a first response to disaster team all over Europe. We did some other jobs that were actually pretty cool even by today's standards. The come-on was the pay and having been an entrepreneur since the age of 6 (beginning of WW2 when times were very tough), money was very important to me and my Lizzie Series is loosely based on that part of my life. No doubt why I continue now at age 80!) About 12 years later, after fellow miners took bets that I wouldn't live past 32, I moved my family to Australia and worked in construction on the desert 1200 miles from Perth and drove that dusty road regularly often sleeping in my car! Years later, I took a job for the Canadian Gov't, in construction up near the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island. Eventually I came to Victoria BC, met my second wife Joyce and, at her suggestion, began writing books while recuperating from a surgery in 1994. It seemed I had a natural ability ... lots of reviews can be found on our website as they were written down on paper or told to me, internet was new back then! I meet and talk to my fans personally as I sell my books at markets. Many of our readers are too busy bugging me for another book to use computers so you won't find many reviews on the internet. You could help us by changing that :) My books are finding a younger generation of adults now (always read by kids too) since we began in 1998. Classic, family friendly stories never seem to totally lose their charm and Joyce and I hope ours won't be either.

Reviews

[Deanna Bisaillon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the "lizzie" series by accident when I was in Vancouver. The only reason I started to read this series is because I met the author. It is about a young girl (takes place in the 1800's) who works for the "common person". I would not normally read this type of book, but after I finished the first one, I was hooked on the characters and the tenacity of Lizzie.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very repetitive: Lizzie comes up with an idea - it's successful; Lizzie comes up with a bigger idea - it's successful; Lizzie comes up with a huge idea - it's successful. I would have liked more character development and more suspense.

[Joyce Sandilands]

This is more background information than a review. I am the editor and publisher of this book written by my husband, a then-new writer who at the age of 62 had never entertained a single thought about writing. Then life and a leg surgery gone bad changed everything. 'Lizzie' became his first published novel in 1998 and I shouldn't have been surprised when it was received so well by readers and tourists to our local area. You see, Robert had always told wonderful stories of his life and this book had also 'talked' to me ... persuading me to 'get it out into the world.'

'Lizzie' was written as Robert was greatly improving from a life-threatening staph infection which resulted in 6 extra surgeries. I asked for him to begin his memoirs and I got fiction instead, something totally unexpected as he had never wanted to write. After writing two books, he asked for my advice on what to write next and I suggested, "... a book about a girl or a woman." His earlier two books were different, set in early 18thC England and have not been published as yet.

He told me later that he simply typed the name 'Lizzie' and she took control of him! Lizzie was writing it herself. It also became apparent when the book was finished that Robert had more-or-less written about his own life as a shrewd business-kid beginning at 6-years-of-age! It took us awhile to realize that he had also given Lizzie his young personality!
When I began editing his books, we were both amateurs to the writing world, and with work and looking after him through six surgeries, I had little time. When I began to read/edit Lizzie, I loved it from the first page. He made me, as a reader, feel a part of the story and I found it difficult to drag myself away. Work and life beckoned but Lizzie kept nagging at me and I soon knew I had to get it published somehow. Then some strange unexpected things began to happen and I met an editor who encouraged me to self-publish, offering me her assistance. It was completed just in time for Christmas 1998 and thus began our incredible adventure in writing and self-publishing.

By 2001, Lizzie had become our first Canadian bestselling novel as thousands of tourists and locals purchased it from our farmer's market stand and at Christmas craft fairs talking to us one-on-one. When they kept asking Robert to continue the series, he was happy to oblige ... he loved revisiting these characters as many were taken from his own life!

They also persuaded him to write the history of our area in novel form ... beginning the Victoria Chronicles. I published the two series' alternatively for the next 6 years. As we went along, he became a better writer and I,a better editor. We soon had 3 Canadian bestsellers and 2 Independent Publisher Gold Medal Awards. We were overwhelmed but somehow managed to churn out 10 books, 2 audio books, and 2 children's books with audio in 11 years. Naysayers couldn't believe our light, clean, family friendly books were so popular.

Our books are all in paperback, ebook, and the Victoria Chronicles are also in hardcover.

And in case you wonder about him giving his own book 4 stars, he re-reads them all the time, but I thought he should be a bit modest! I, however, felt I should be allowed to give it 5 stars. I'm only slightly biased!

I hope you will try one of our books soon. Thanks for reading.

[Joyce Sandilands · Rating 5 out of 5]

Editor's Comments (no spoilers): I am the editor and publisher of this book and wife of the author. This was the first book I had ever edited/published and the third book my husband had written. We were rank amateurs and hadn't a clue what we were doing but I loved what he was writing from the first paragraph he read to me in 1994, and that made all the difference. He wrote his first three books in the period 1994-1998 while fighting a deadly staph/flesh eating infection and writing had been the furthest thing from his mind.

He turned 65 in 1998 as we discussed publishing possibilities. I wanted the world to experience this book that I felt was so special and remarkable for my husband to have written. He was not so easily persuaded, but 'Lizzie' had 'talked to me' in the months since I had read it and I was not about to forget about it. After talking with several people in the writing/publishing community, we hired a proofreader, decided to use the new POD process and printed 500 copies. We had no idea how we were going to sell them but he started with his coffee friends on December 8, 1998. In three months we cancelled our POD contract, went solo, re-edited and printed a further 2,000 copies. I published a book a year for Robert over the next 10 years and his (untrained) abilities and our success have startled everyone. In 15 years, we have met thousands of lovely readers and fans who made this all so worthwhile.

If you're curious how we accomplished this, please check our new website: www.joycesandilands.com where you'll find his bio.

Now, if you want to read on, let me tell you a bit about how 'Lizzie' came about. When I added it here to Goodreads, I had to give it 5 Stars as this book would not have been published if I had not loved it so much. When Robert finished his second (still unpublished today) novel, it appeared he had beaten the infection and I asked what he was going to write next. He didn't know, so he asked me for my thoughts. I suggested, "Write a book for women. They will be the main purchasers if we decide to publish." How right I was, but many men have also loved Lizzie's spunk.

He started 'Lizzie' immediately and he later admitted this book "wrote itself." He had no idea he was putting so much of himself into this story until after it was finished and read by a close friend. Like Lizzie, Robert had been a childhood entrepreneur too, in Yorkshire. His grandfather gave him an idea and he ran with it. When a budding entrepreneur gets the taste of money he has never had, it can be a very difficult experience to shake. He was six-years-old and he has never stopped! Utilizing his own knowledge on the subject Robert wrote this novel for adults. With young characters (a girl and a boy), it has turned out to be popular with not only girls and women, but boys and men, too from ages 6 to 100 (yes two 100-year-old ladies have proudly told us they had each read it themself and loved it! It became Robert's first Canadian bestselling novel in 2001 and is still popular today in 2012. One of our earliest reviewers referred to 'Lizzie' as "an engaging, exciting, funny and touching story." By popular demand it was a 4-book series. We hope you'll give it a try.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently this is a novel intended for an adult audience, and I have to strongly disagree. I rate this book as if it were for adults, but I feel like it would probably be a good read for someone younger, maybe eleven to thirteen.

Unfortunately, this was a repetitive read for me. Lizzie, our heroine, faced absolutely no failures. Not one of her schemes had a hitch! This made for no character growth, no positive change at all. Lizzie goes through life bossing people around, and they take it, even those of advanced years, thanks to the shock of being ordered around by a small girl. In fact, every response to Lizzie's forceful attitude is in the same order: surprise, disbelief, laughter, acquiescence. Every time.

The whole novel has too much laughter! Nobody moves without a chuckle or a laugh, and with almost every turn of the page, Lizzie or Quon were giggling about something. Always giggling. Or running! It seemed the two main characters did not move but to run, (or scamper,) by even the halfway point through the book I felt exhausted by the constant running everywhere.

Which brings me to Quon Lee. Oh, poor Quon. At first his broken English was part of his character, but after a few years of story time, it began to feel offensive. Especially as our title character is able to learn more posh speech patterns (despite being surrounded by low class Yorkshire dock folk, and having no good examples.) Young children immersed in a new language are extremely good at picking up correct pronunciation and syntax, and it is inconceivable that Quon would not have had a positive change to his speech patterns.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can thank one of the goodreads.com reading groups for this book choice! One of the monthly reading challenges was to read a book with the main character's name of Elizabeth, or some form thereof. I started looking though ebooks and came across this book. I can truly say I was not disappointed by the find.

The book is about a young Lizzie who finds herself with nowhere to live. She happens upon an elderly gentleman who takes her in after she helps him when he becomes ill. Lizzie proves to be quite the business woman, even at her young age. The book is entertaining with many lively characters and a plot that keeps you wondering what she will come up with next!