But the deeper the two cousins dig, the more serious the situation appears. Is worries the shock might send Arun back to chasing mice and biting people's ankles. But when Is and Arun arrive in Cold Shoulder Road, where he last left his mother Ruth Twite and the strange, silent sect she belonged to, they find the whole street deserted. While recovering from the trauma that drove him into cathood, Arun has gradually reverted to boyhood. Find him she did, in the form of a boy who thought he was a cat and lived accordingly. Like Is, Cold Shoulder Road takes the point of view of Is (or Isabett) Twite, younger sister of Dido Twite, who left the home she shared with oldest sister Penny in Blackheath Edge, Kent, to honor a dying uncle's wish and find her vanished cousin Arun. I had no luck finding a copy of it until I came across the omnibus edition of Is and this book: canonically the ninth, publicationally the tenth or eleventh book in what I believe is one of the great classic series of young-adult adventure novels. And I've mentioned before that the title Is is a sovereign internet search killer.

Midnight Is a Place is treated as a completely separate work, even though it shares the same alternate-history period-fantasy world as this series. (Examples: Limbo Lodge= Dangerous Games Is= Is Underground.) The fourth book in publication order, a prequel called The Whispering Mountain, is routinely left out of numbered lists of the canonincal series, which may lead to confusion about which book is the nth in the series. A couple of the books have different titles in the U.S. Following Joan Aiken's 'Wolves Chronicles,' which I have also seen described as the 'James III saga,' is a bit challenging.

Joan Aiken Omnibus by Joan Aiken