posted on 02 Apr 2023

The Great Fox Heist by Justyn Edwards

The thing about magic tricks is that they are all about sleight of hand and distracting the observer from what’s really going on. From the very outset of this second book in the ‘Great Fox’ series, The Great Fox Heist, Justyn Edwards tells us not to take anything on face value:

“This book is a trick. Please don’t trust it or sit back and enjoy it. In fact, don’t take your eyes off it for a second….”

And the book certainly delivers on this promise to keep you guessing. Flick Lions and her best friend, Charlie have accompanied the magician known as The Great Fox (who is never seen without his trademark fox mask) to a competition in the Swiss town of Linth. Flick and Charlie are to be The Great Fox’s apprentices in a battle between four premier magicians to become the Chancellor of the Global Order of Magic but Flick has another motive for being there – she wants to find her father, another magician, who has disappeared.

Because of her previous dealings with The Great Fox, Flick really doesn’t trust her mentor and suspects he has another agenda he’s there to pursue but she can never quite pin down what that might be. The rules of the competition demand that each magician who wants to become the Chancellor must hand over responsibility for their final grand trick to their apprentices and are not allowed to stay in Linth once the initial planning has been completed.

In order to win each magician must come up with a mind-blowing trick and The Great Fox has devised a trick about the theft of diamonds from a sealed bank vault. But why has he come up with such a complicated idea? Is the trick really what he’s interested in or does he want to get into that vault to find something else?

And, just to complicate things still further, Flick gets a message from her father that suggests he’s also in town – but where?

As the plot thickens it soon becomes clear that the author’s tip that we should not relax really kicks in. Soon we’re asking whether anyone can be trusted – even Flick herself starts to think about her own double-cross.

Ultimately everything seems to hinge on something called the Bell System – which may or may not be an ultimate and dangerous trick that everyone seems to want to get their hands on.

Obviously, I’m trying to be super-careful not to give too much away because you’ll want to follow all the twists and turns for yourself. What I can tell you is that you’ll find yourself on the edge of your seat as the danger for Flick ramps up page by page and she’ll find herself and her friendships tested to the max.

Oh, yes, I should also add that for those of you who might fancy yourselves as budding magicians, you’ll be delighted to hear that we get to find out how the magic tricks featured in the story are actually set up and carried-out.

The book is published by Walker Books and should be available from your local independent bookshop, who will order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.

 

Terry Potter

April 2023