WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2007
Catherine O'Flynn was born in Birmingham in 1970, where she grew up in and around her parents' sweet shop as the youngest child of a large family. She has been a teacher, web editor, mystery customer and postwoman. Her first novel draws on her experience of working in record stores - and of growing up as a child intrigued by clues, suspects and methods of detection.
A terrific, wonderful book . . . I loved every page of it
*Douglas Coupland*
A great debut novel from an awesomely talented author
*Jonathan Coe*
An exceptional, polyphonic novel of urban disaffection, written
with humour and pathos
*Guardian*
It's wonderful . . . A beguiling novel about disconnection, loss
and the anonymity of modern Britain
*Metro*
I adored every page and recommend it to everyone
*Jenny Colgan*
In 1980s England, a little girl playing at detective dis-appears, and the young man she cozied up to gets slaughtered by the press. Twenty years later, his sister is intrigued by a child she spots on the local mall's surveillance camera. Longlisted for all of Britain's big awards; reading group guide. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Stirring and beautifully crafted, this debut novel recounts how the repercussions of a girl's disappearance can last for decades. In 1984, Kate Meaney is a 10-year-old loner who solves imaginary mysteries and guesses the dark secrets of the shoppers she observes at the Green Oaks mall. Kate's unlikely circle includes her always-present stuffed monkey; 22-year-old Adrian, who works at the candy shop next door; and Kate's classmate, Teresa Stanton, who hides her intelligence behind disruptive behavior. Kate's grandmother has plans for Kate: send her to boarding school. But Kate doesn't want to go. Fast forward to 2003, where it's revealed through Lisa, Adrian's sister, that Kate disappeared nearly 20 years ago, and Adrian, blamed in her disappearance, also vanished. Lisa works at a record store in Green Oaks and is drawn to Kurt, a security guard whose surveillance-camera sightings of a little girl clutching a stuffed monkey hint that he might have ties to Kate's disappearance. Teresa, meanwhile, now a detective, has her own reasons for being haunted by Kate's disappearance. Gripping to the end, the book is both a chilling mystery and a poignant examination of the effects of loss and loneliness. (July) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
A terrific, wonderful book . . . I loved every page of it * Douglas
Coupland *
A great debut novel from an awesomely talented author * Jonathan
Coe *
An exceptional, polyphonic novel of urban disaffection, written
with humour and pathos * Guardian *
It's wonderful . . . A beguiling novel about disconnection, loss
and the anonymity of modern Britain * Metro *
I adored every page and recommend it to everyone * Jenny Colgan *
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