Product Description

Only two people knew what Danny really was. One was his father, who didn't believe it. The other was his mother who did. Chart the journey of Christie and his step-brother Danny as Danny tries to find his mother in her hidden lab in Fourth World, a world that holds many secrets.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #563181 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review

"Everybody in our town had their own ideas about my step-brother, Danny. Some of them called him disabled, some said he was autistic and some just referred to him as "that poor boy". The truth was that there were only two people who knew what Danny really was. One was his father, who didn't believe it. The other was his mother, who did."

Christie and his step-brother Danny embark on a curious quest to track down Danny's scientist mother in the north of Scotland. En route they meet with Tina, a young homeless girl, and her dog Oggy who has the ability to speak. Together with Darling, a talking bird, they travel through the harsh winter Highlands to the Fourth World: a place that holds as many secrets as it does answers.

Kate Thompson,author of the intense and magical Switchers trilogy, turns her hand to the tricky subject of genetic engineering in The Missing Link, a novel that subtly captures the spirit of its mismatched characters as they travel across the harshest of landscapes in search of some kind of truth. The beautifully observed relationship between Christie and his "disabled" brother holds the story together, driving it forward until the crucial moment when everything begins to fall into place and the slow realisation that there is something more to Danny's condition than meets the eye pulls the reader deeper into the story until the final and shocking twist.

Set somewhere in the not too distant future in a world where fuel is heavily rationed and civil unrest is rife, Thompson touches the tricky subject of genetic engineering with a sense of time, place and emotion that sensitively drives this exceptional novel towards its climax. What remains is a lasting and pertinent impression of a world where nothing is quite as it seems and where human beings, on their eternal quest for improvement, meddle with things that are sometimes best left in peace. Age 10 and over. --Susan Harrison

From the Back Cover
The Missing Link charts the journey of Christie as he travels with his step-brother Danny on a quest to find Danny's mysterious mother in Fourth World. In this tremendous novel of genetic mystery and adventure, Christie is about to discover some unexpected and amazing truths. For Fourth World holds many secrets, some of terrifying significance . . .

Kate Thompson, winner of the Irish Children's Book of the Year 2002, Bisto Award

Customer Reviews

The Missing Link
Reading books is quite a family ritual, most evenings I spend at least an hour reading to my 9 year old son. We both found this book to be very well written, even if parts of the plot itself were a bit far fetched. My son was, in fact, totally rivetted to the story, his only complaint being that the hour passed by too quickly!
Even before we had finished this story, he insisted that we bought the other two books in the trilogy.
The plot, which deals with genetic engineering in mammals (including humans)and birds, is possibly best suited for children 10 years or older. It is a shame that Kate Thompson does not go further into the morals and ethics of the subject, but this book is a thoroughly good read and will be enjoyed by all those who have enjoyed her other works such as The Switchers.

This book was too complex and boring.
I didn't like this book at all the charectures were too unbelieveble and it was far far too complex for the age group it was aiming at. It was extreemly tempting to just put this book down and forget about it as it began to get a bit repetitive and boring. The stryline was hard to follow and it never seemed to come to and end and I don't normally dislike books.

The Missing Link
I was disappointed with this book and thought Kate Thompson's previous books, the Switchers trilogy, were much better. Although this book was about the same length it seemed to be aimed at a younger age group, with less believable characters and situations, like talking animals. The plot didn't come to an end properly. The book seemed to drag on for ages, then just as it was getting intresting finished. Hopefully some of the loose ends will be followed up in the sequel to this book, but I'd prefer the book to be complete by itself.