Young woman who's mother taught her extreme paranoia comes home to find her mother slain. She hides in London's abandoned subway tunnels while trying to avenge her mothers death and find out the secret of her father's death.

Synopsis: Jazz has never trusted anyone; she learned that from her mother. After her mother is murdered, Jazz runs and finds herself in the forgotten tube stations far under London. There she meets a Fagin-type character and embarks on a life of petty crime. However, magic and terror follow her, leading to knowledge she must learn to control.
Review: It took me more than half of the book to begin to get interested in Jazz's plight. Once I passed that point, the book was interesting. However, the first part of the book was too much background and not enough story. ( )

Dull. ( )

While I have enjoyed novels by both Golden and Lebbon, I'm not too sure that I would say that I enjoyed this one. Maybe that's too harsh. I didn't not enjoy it but then I didn't love it either. It was more along the lines of a solid "there," existing and potentially fun but not really.

The story follows a teenage Jasmine "Jazz" Towne who comes home from school one day to find her mom killed by her "Uncles." Her Uncles, also called BMW men, came by at irregular intervals while Jazz was growing up; they would talk with her mom for a while and then leave. My first thought was that her mom was turning tricks but there was actually a conspiracy that happening instead. A conspiracy that made her mom raise Jazz to be very paranoid about everything. This is what gets Jazz to run before she can be caught. She ends up in the Underground and hiding out at old, unused stations. Down there she meets up with another outcast group led by someone who has ties to her past.

As you can see from my summary attempt, there is a lot happening and some thought put into the characters. My problem ended up being that the novel had too many parts that weren't pursued. There was a mystical and supernatural element that was part of the whole story but it wasn't really used. It was more like a ghost that screams out and then goes away. There were some psychic elements that in hind sight seemed to be introduced to make things easier. And there was a conspiracy that left just as many questions at the end of the book as in the middle. Maybe those questions are addressed in the other Hidden Cities novels but considering those are based in other cities (New Orleans, Venice, Boston) I'm not sure if they do. One other thing that I wasn't aware of when starting the book was that it seems to be a Young Adult novel. Nothing wrong with that but I wasn't quite expecting it. If I had known, then I would have set my expectations differently from the start. Overall I'm glad that read it because you never find new things to like if you stick with the same old thing all the time. However, I won't be buying or reading any of the follow up novels. ( )

If you're looking for... a book, this will certainly meet that need. Past that, not so much. "Mind The Gap" wasn't BAD, just dull. Unusual setting, suspense, etc but just no excitement. You'd be better off reading Twelve-Hawks. ( )