Book Review of The Etiquette of Voles
The Children’s Book Review
The Etiquette of Voles
Written by Karen McCoy
Ages: 8-12 | 312 Pages
Publisher: Kinkajou Press (2025) | ISBN-13: 978-1963832112
What to Expect: Victorian London, animal detectives, friendship, mystery, found family, resilience.
A talking vole. A missing shipment of fish. A London backdrop full of soot, secrets, and smog. Karen McCoy’s The Etiquette of Voles serves up a deliciously Dickensian mystery for middle-grade readers that blends the whimsy of The Great Mouse Detective with the grit of Victorian underworld drama.
Chains—a snarky, oversized talking vole with a mysterious past—is both narrator and sleuth, living with the aging Eldridge, a former Scotland Yard man. When a shady character named Shelvie reports his valuable fish shipment stolen, Chains and Eldridge are pulled into an investigation that spans grimy docks, peculiar bakeries, and the hazy alleys of 1890s London. Alongside Chains is Daniel, an earnest and underfed fourteen-year-old errand boy with a sharp mind and a sharper moral compass. Together, they dig into a case that may hold the key to the missing fish and the origin of Chains’ existence.
The voice in this novel is one of its standout features. Chains is delightfully dry, his narration packed with wit, observational humor, and a surprisingly poignant reflection on identity, purpose, and belonging. His friendship with Daniel is touching, and their banter offers moments of lightness against the book’s darker themes of poverty, exploitation, and power.
McCoy paints Victorian London with vivid strokes—coal smoke, clattering carriages, and the fishy air of St. Katharine Docks waft off the pages. The mystery unfolds steadily with enough red herrings, overheard conversations, and secret symbols to keep sleuth-minded readers eagerly turning pages. McCoy handles themes of found family, memory, and moral ambiguity with nuance, never underestimating her readers’ capacity for complexity.
Thought-provoking, atmospheric, and full of heart, The Etiquette of Voles is an inventive middle-grade mystery that will appeal to fans of animal protagonists, historical settings, and cerebral adventures.
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About the Author
Karen McCoy is an author and librarian. She currently lives in Northern California with her husband and two very opinionated cats. When not answering research questions or writing, she’s usually reading, listening to music, or drinking tea. She also maintains a blog where she interviews other authors. This is her first published novel.
