What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Trying to find any of the books from a series I read. I read the first 2 around the 2010s in Australia, but I got them as part of an assortment given to me by my ebay/charity shop addicted grandfather. So I don't know when they were written or even if they ever made it out of Australia

Its historical science fiction in that they're set in late 1800s china (muskets, cannon and sword) but with magnetic reinforced submarines, gravity warping gyroscopes etc

Story follows 2 young British adults, parents who vanished on an expedition, living with their uncle who is a sea captain. They travel along with him to China, meet up with firework merchants who are also dual wielding swordsmen, alchemists (with alchemical discus grenades) and travel around having adventures trying to find their parents and unraveling history that the secret society that their parents and uncle belong to are trying to find out

There's weird puzzles involving the painting "The Ambassadors" by Holbein, a Tong warlord with a necklace of human fingers, an American female pilot (who I'm pretty sure is just an attempt to copy Lee Scoresby from His Dark Materials) but with a biplane

I know it was a series of 3 with these lovely leather journal like covers. The first one was red, had an inbuilt bookmark and the middle of it had pictures/diagrams. The third book concerns an expedition to find the lost city of Ur, where the parents are supposed to have gone missing.

I'm sorry for the scattershot way I've described it, but I read it as a young adult myself and the stories of the first two books has rather melded together. If I can clarify anything (or have messed up in my post somehow) please let me know.

Yetiman969, try adding more plot details to the header/ topic title "YA Historical Science..." You can copy from what you've already written in the comments. Someone is more likely to recognize your book. If you would like help with this, just post a new comment.

Possibly the Young Samurai series by Chris Bradford? I think the first in the series is Way of the Warrior.

The Guild of Specialists series by Joshua Mowll? The first book is Operation Red Jericho.

Link for Smithy's suggestion.

The Way of the Warrior by Chris Bradford.

Becca wrote: "The Guild of Specialists series by Joshua Mowll? The first book is Operation Red Jericho."

You got it in one. Thank you so very much