Product Description

The 1980s. Kate Meaney - with her 'Top Secret' notebook and
Mickey her toy monkey - is busy being a junior detective. She observes
goings-on and follows 'suspects' at the newly opened Green Oaks shopping
centre and in her street, where she is friends with the newsagent's son,
Adrian. But when this curious, independent-spirited young girl disappears,
Adrian falls under suspicion and is hounded out of his home by the press.

Then, in 2004, Adrian's sister Lisa - stuck in a going-nowhere relationship
- is working as a deputy manager at Your Music, a cut-price record store.
Every day she tears her hair out at the horribly bizarre behaviour of her
customers and colleagues. But together with security guard Kurt, she
becomes entranced by the little girl they keep glimpsing on the centre's
CCTV. As their after-hours friendship intensifies, they investigate how
these sightings might be connected to the unsettling history of Green Oaks
itself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #988 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Guardian
'An exceptional, polyphonic novel of urban disaffection, written
with humour and pathos'

Daily Mail
'A superb, haunting novel from a new literary talent'

Jonathan Coe
'Skewers our consumer society in all its absurdity and terrible
sadness. A great debut novel from an awesomely talented writer'

Customer Reviews

read it in a day
LOved IT, loved the narration - loved the jokes ( had to stop myself laughing as i was reading it at work)
loved the Quinton and steri refs

presume was based on MErry Hill
well done Catherine!

OK
I picked this up in my local Tesco the other day, thought it looked intriguing but although it was nicely written it failed to excite me. I thought the early part about Kate and her detective agency was quite funny, and perceptive, the eyes of a child were well depicted, but when it moved into the present day I lost interest really. Skipped some of it to get to the end to find out what actually happened to Kate and Adrian, average book.

Beautifully written
Contrary to at least one other review, I find the character of Kate the pre-teen detective very convincing, wonderfully drawn, and like several other characters in this wonderfully written novel, achingly sad.

There is something of Joanne Harris in the spareness of the prose here, deceptively simple, clean, uncomplicated, but flowing.

The plot is perhaps thin in places, and certainly the conclusion is not entirely convincing, but it feels rather like an excuse to produce some of these fine characters. Like many an early novel, you suspect more than a hint of autobiography as well.

A lovely read.