* THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER *'An enthralling read' GUARDIAN'A thrilling blend of fantasy and horror, richly imagined and masterfully executed' SFX'Terrific . . .A book that creeps up on you, wearing brass knuckles' CONN IGGULDEN--------------The first in a captivating new historical fantasy series, ORDINARY MONSTERS introduces the Talents with a catastrophic vision of the Victorian world, and the gifted, broken children who must save it. There in the shadows was a figure in a cloak, at the bottom of the cobblestone stair, and it turned and stared up at them as still and unmoving as a pillar of darkness, but it had no face, only smoke . .. 1882. North of Edinburgh, on the edge of an isolated loch, lies an institution of crumbling stone, where a strange doctor collects orphans with unusual abilities.In London, two children with such powers are hunted by a figure of darkness - a man made of smoke. Charlie Ovid discovers a gift for healing himself through a brutal upbringing in M