Osbert The Avenger.

I must admit I'm in two minds about this book. I absolutely loved it, however I'm not convinced it's entirely suitable for the age range, which is suggested on the back of the book for ages 9+.
Let me elaborate. Schwartzgarten is a bleak place. It's obviously intended as an Edwardian period, German set, slightly steam-punky city state which can only exist in literature. It's one of those places where dark and devilish deeds abound. Born into this city is Osbert Brinkhoff, a child genius. He is granted a place at the Schwartzgarten Institute, a school where only the cleverest pupils are allowed entry; a place where the teachers view it as their job to break the will of the children they teach. With one notable exception, the teachers are all as evil as it is possible for a teacher to be.
After Osbert gains a perfect score in an exam but is denied the prize that should be his, he challenges the Head Teacher. This is a mistake as the Institute is the richest, most influential organisation in Schwartzgarten and they arrange for Osbert's father to lose his job in a bank and his family to lose their home.
Things unravel further for Osbert and after he sees his violin teacher hurt his beloved friend Isabella, he decides to take revenge. Thus starts a series of unplanned and planned murders as Osbert accidentally at first and then deliberately goes about bumping off five of his teachers. It's lovely stuff.
The first victim, the violin teacher, is tied to his bed with violin wire as a punishment. Osbert doesn't know that the teacher's housekeeper has gone visiting for ten days, and so when she returns... Well let's say the violin teacher won't teach the violin, or anything else again. Buoyed by his accidental success, he then plans the murders of the remaining 4 members of the teaching staff. I particularly enjoyed the death of the only female member of staff, who is lured to a disused strudel factory. There she is captured, suspended by a rope and forced to eat strudel until she breaks the rope and falls to her death. Marvellous. The ending is rather exciting too, but perhaps even darker than the rest of the book.
As I said, I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was deliciously dark, frequently thrilling, funny where it needed to be and despite it's darkness the writing had a lightness of touch to it that made reading it a great experience. It also had some great characters. I really liked Osbert's Nanny, who it turns out isn't adverse to bumping off her husbands.
I know it is a fantasy, but I do wonder about a 12 year old serial killer with a fondness for wielding a meat cleaver as an anti hero in a 9-12 book, but there's something so enjoyable about it I can't help enthusing about it.