The Door The Led to Where by Sally Gardner

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 200

Publisher: Hot Key Books

Released: 1st of January 2015

AJ Flynn has just failed all but one of his GCSEs, and his future is looking far from rosy. So when he is offered a junior position at a London law firm he hopes his life is about to change - but he could never have imagined by how much.

Tidying up the archive one day, AJ finds an old key, mysteriously labelled with his name and date of birth - and he becomes determined to find the door that fits the key. And so begins an amazing journey to a very real and tangible past - 1830, to be precise - where the streets of modern Clerkenwell are replaced with cobbles and carts, and the law can be twisted to suit a villain's means. Although life in 1830 is cheap, AJ and his friends quickly find that their own lives have much more value. They've gone from sad youth statistics to young men with purpose - and at the heart of everything lies a crime that only they can solve. But with enemies all around, can they unravel the mysteries of the past, before it unravels them?

What I Have to Say 

Normally any book that has time travel to Victorian London in it would be right up my street. But this book didn't really catch me the way I wanted it too. I think it was the voice of the main character, I don't know what it was about it, but it just didn't do anything for me. 

That said, I really liked the story. Though I felt there wasn't much mystery in the poisoning subplot, I was engaged in seeing who would end up on which side of the door and whether AJ would lock it as well as the mystery of who his father was. 

It also really fitted together well at the end. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll keep this as vague as possible, but all the characters fitted well into the plot and everything was tied up neatly. There didn't seem to be any detail that the author missed when bringing the characters together. 

I really don't know what it was that put me off this book. I enjoyed it, but just not as much as I feel I could have. 

3.5 Stars