Best-selling author Avi has won numerous honors, including the Newbery Medal for Crispin: The Cross of Lead. In The Traitors' Gate, Avi spins a Dickensian tale of 19th-century London. Young John Huffam is having a disastrous time. His father has been jailed and John himself is being followed by Inspector Copperfield-just one of the many eccentric characters in this delightfully Victorian tale. '[This] is the novel I've always wanted to write. It was inspired by the true tale of young Charles Dickens ...'-Avi