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BOOKMONGER
YA series wraps up with unifying message
Four years ago, William
Ritter embarked on two new
adventures almost simulta-
neously. He started teaching
at a new high school in the
Willamette Valley, and he
also saw the publication of
his book, “Jackaby,” which
was to be the first in a series
of historical YA novels that
deal in the supernatural.
This spring, Ritter read
the names of the graduating
seniors at the high school’s
commencement ceremony,
sending the students he had
spent four years with out
into the world. Following
close on the heels of their
graduation, he now also sees
the publication of his fourth
and final Jackaby book, “The
Dire King.”
If you know about these
parallel experiences in
advance, you’ll notice how
much good advice and life
wisdom Ritter dresses up
in 19th century costume
and stuffs into his book. It’s
probably more effective than
delivering a droning speech
to a gymnasium packed with
giddy graduates, their fami-
lies, balloons, bouquets, and
contraband confetti.
It’s certainly more enter-
taining. “The Dire King” also
has wendigos and goblins,
pixies and gnomes, were-
“The Dire King”
By William Ritter
Algonquin
352 pp
$17.95
wolves and centaurs and
assorted other creatures that
R.F. Jackaby (a private eye
with supernatural Seeing
power), his able assistant
Abigail Rook, the resident
ghost Jenny Cavanaugh, and
the shape-shifting police
detective Charlie Cane must
deal with as they combat a
rising tide of mayhem and
suspicion in New Fiddleham,
New England.
There are reckless and
incompetent politicians,
duped by evil forces, who are
pandering to ignorance and
ramping up paranoia as they
detain “suspects” with little
grounds for doing so.
And there are larger and
far more ruthless players in
the “otherworld.” Using the
chaos they have helped to cre-
Crossword Answer
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ate as a smokescreen (some-
times fiction resonates eerily
with the real world), they are
working behind the scenes,
bent on besieging humanity in
a winner-takes-all war.
The author goes on to
devote several chapters to
the physical conflict, taking
care to describe the array of
combatants, the war appara-
tus, the blow-by-blows and
the grisly outcomes – but
as in movies that devote
too much screen time to
special effects, these scenes
seem interminable. It is
much more interesting when
Ritter returns to the moral
dilemmas and the nuanced
arguments that demand that
the reader’s intellect be fully
engaged.
As in the previous books in
the “Jackaby” series, this tale
is narrated by Abigail Rook.
Over time we have seen Rook
hone her headstrong disposi-
tion into a more mature focus
that combines thoughtfulness
with determination. Rook has
also learned how to comple-
ment her boss’s single-mind-
ed brilliance with her own
blend of common sense and
compassion. In short, we have
seen her grow up and begin to
define her place in the world.
“This world doesn’t need
showy champions,” she
realizes. “It needs people
who are good, people who
do good, even if nobody will
ever know.”
“The Dire King” chal-
lenges hatemongers and
bullies. It promotes tolerance,
resilience, courage and hope.
More than ever, this is a
message our young people
need to hear, and William
Ritter delivers.
The Bookmonger is Barbara
Lloyd McMichael, who writes
this weekly column focusing
on the books, authors and
publishers of the Pacific
Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com