Liberally packed with references to and witty details about important works, leaders (a final pursuit involves exhuming Napoleon's body from St. The doctor's ambitious research and the duo's flight from a terrifying and mysterious body snatcher take them along the East Coast and across the Atlantic. Matthew's literal hunger as well as his thirst for education outweighs his ethical reservations, and he quickly demonstrates his ingenuity in building and organizing the doctor's practice. The shabby but flamboyant doctor is an expert in phrenology, ''the scientific study of the mind through the surface of the skull.'' Matthew soon learns that his job entails not only impressing the wealthy clients who come in for character analyses but also robbing graves of famous heads. After his family falls victim to cholera, orphaned 12-year-old Matthew Morrissey survives on the streets of New York in 1839, until he reads about a position as assistant to Dr. (Apr.Karr's (The Great Turkey Walk Man of the Family) comical, fast-paced novel reveals the seedy practices of 19th-century scientists. Pride in talents brought to this land first by us.' While the story offers an idiosyncratic view of the Old West, the Gold Rush and other historical moments, it also may engage readers who can see past Ali's mannered speech and identify with his yearning to be free. They will feel pride in the knowledge of its builders.

'Our great-grandchildren will travel the road, the route we are breaking. 'A great road lasts almost forever,' Ali consoles Fatinah, his eventual mate who, like Ali, despises servitude. The camels next form a caravan and travel west across the desert, carrying supplies and hauling boulders as the army builds a new road. Featuring occasional camel-speak (e.g., a human is a 'man-beast'), Ali's narrative chronicles the animals' arrival in 'Texas-America' in the 'Year of the Infidels 1856.' (Ali and the other camels, along with their cameleer, worship Allah brief quotes from the Qur'an introduce the three parts of the novel.) Working with 'soldier-beasts,' for whom the camels frequently demonstrate their contempt by spitting, they are trained for an artillery experiment that fails and is abandoned. Army and transported, along with other camels, to Texas to join the short-lived U.S. Once again mines a sliver of American history in this stylized novel, narrated by a camel from Egypt who is bought by a colonel in the U.S.

Skullduggery by Kathleen Karr