Midnight for Charlie Bone: The Children of the Red King #1

The final section of the book covers its climax and resolution, where the issue of Emma Tolly’s rescue and the repercussions are dealt with. The ending provides a satisfying conclusion, typical of middle-grade mystery books, while leaving larger mysteries, such as that around Charlie’s father, to sustain the series’s continuing narrative arc. 

Part 4 shows that there will be a positive ending to The Struggle Between Good and Evil. The friends successfully lure “Emilia” away from the overly controlling Moons and to the Gunn house, where Tolly Twelve Bells is stored. While waiting for Emma and Olivia to arrive, Charlie worries: “Was he doing the right thing? Would Olivia find the house? Would Emilia wake up? And if she did would she scream and freak out, or faint…or turn into something else? A bird maybe” (326). The pattern of questioning here heightens the suspense of the passage. His thoughts also show his concern for the girl’s well-being and provide foreshadowing through imagery. While Emma’s endowment is described in the book as the ability to fly, it is revealed later in the series that she actually has the power to turn into whatever bird she wishes. This is an example of how the ending of one book, while on a downward narrative arc, must set up readers for the series that follows. 

The reunion between Emma and her sense of self shows The Power of Friendship and familial love. As the enchanted knight in Dr. Tolly’s case rises and the twelve bells chime, Emma cries and says, “I didn’t know that I was so unhappy. All my life I’ve lived with people who didn’t love me” (329). Charlie’s reassurance that her aunt is waiting for her gives Emma a sense of hope that contrasts with the desolation she’s known all her life. While the Bloors and Moons attempt to stop her, the actions of the other children give her the confidence to escape from Bloor’s Academy and find her aunt. Olivia describes “Emilia’s” room as “rather sad […] There were no pictures on the walls, and everything that Emilia owned must have been packed away in the numerous drawers and closets that lined the room” (324). Emma’s longing for a loving family home mirrors Billy’s providing a contrast between the two children’s fates in the book. When Emma meets her aunt in the living space behind the shop, “She breathed in the smell of old paper and leather and print and, with a deep sigh, she declared it to be the most wonderful room in the world” (344). She has finally found the warm and loving world she’s always missed. Her reaction to Miss Ingledew’s bookshop contrasts her prior life and she recognizes The Weight of Family Legacy in a positive sense.

Aunt Venetia’s “gift” of a new blue cape is the final stage of jeopardy that Charlie must pass through before the resolution. This combines the themes of The Weight of Family Legacy and The Struggle Between Good and Evil. By giving Charlie the cape, his Yewbeam family put him in real danger. In many ways, they have shown themselves to be a false family, just like the Moons have been to Emma. Charlie is forced to abandon his cape, even though he is at risk of freezing without it, and these scenes are the most physically exciting in the novel. Nimmo writes the scenes in the ruin exclusively through Charlie’s eyes and from students like Fidelio and Olivia, who watch from the school’s windows, heightening the action. In the aftermath of the rescue, Cook prepares a feast for Charlie, Gabriel, Lysander, Tancred, and the rest of the music department students. This scene is a moment of triumph and relaxation for the children, and the reader, after the tension of the “ruin game.”

Paton’s character reaches the zenith of his development when he rescues Emma’s document. His demands and skillful wielding of a power he once barely had under control signify a turning point in his character and the Yewbeam family dynamic. Within the school, the laughter that follows is a cathartic release for the students, who momentarily shed their fear.

With the Yewbeams and Bloors temporarily cowed and Emma’s freedom secured, the book’s plot can wrap up its few loose ends and prepare for the subsequent entry into the series. Midnight for Charlie Bone closes on Miss Ingledew’s party, which takes place on the Winter Solstice, or “the longest night of the year” (397), and is lit entirely by candlelight to accommodate Paton. While the others celebrate, Charlie thinks about his father, who is alive but still missing and under Manfred’s hypnosis. The final image of the book is of Charlie’s hope that, since he was able to reunite Emma with her aunt, he might be able to find Lyell, too. His final ruminations lead the reader onto the next book of the series.