This debut mystery begins in Birmingham, England in 1984. Kate Meaney is 10, a loner who lives with her grandmother after her father has a stroke and dies, and is obsessed with becoming a detective. Her world revolves around her imaginary detective agency, Falcon Investigation, which she runs with her stuffed toy, Mickey the Monkey. Kate lives next door to a sweets shop, and offers surveillance to the owner and his son, Adrian, who at 22 is Kate’s main friend in her solitary life and the only adult who knows of her desire to one day be a private detective. She also does undercover spying at the new shopping center, Green Oaks, and it is there that she suddenly disappears one day, never to be seen again. Adrian, pulled into the police station for questioning, also vanishes after the anguish of being accused of her abduction.
After Kate is lost, the novel jumps to 2003, where Adrian’s sister, Lisa, is an assistant manager at a record shop in the Green Oaks mall. She knows her brother is alive only because he sends her a mixed tape every year on her birthday, but it is not until she finds a stuffed monkey in the mall that she begins to think constantly of Kate and Adrian’s disappearance. Shortly after finding the monkey, a lonely security guard working the night shift at the mall begins to see a girl show up on his CCTV cameras that looks like Kate.
Part mystery and part ghost story, the novel also has funny moments to it, and a budding romance between Lisa and Kurt, the security guard haunted by images of Kate. Both Lisa and Kurt are hiding secrets, including Kurt’s horrible one of seeing Kate the day she was disappeared. Everything is artfully tied together at the end, and readers do get to find out what happened to Kate. Full of wonderfully detailed characters, a haunting desire to find out what happens to Kate, and many surprises, I was enchanted by this novel and couldn’t put it down. While heartbreaking, I highly recommend this gripping book. – Reviewed by Sarah
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