Helpful Score: 10
The premise of this book is interesting, but it somehow fails to deliver. My book club just read this, and we all agreed that this novel starts too slowly, which caused a lot of people to lose interest before the story really developed.
I do think that this could have been edited better; it is sometimes too descriptive without moving the story along. And the way that a lot of loose ends are conveniently and neatly tied up at the end is just an easy way out for an author. You can definitely tell that this is Catherine O'Flynn's first book.
To summarize: it's not the worst thing I've ever read, but it's definitely not the best either. In a word, this book is mediocre.
I do think that this could have been edited better; it is sometimes too descriptive without moving the story along. And the way that a lot of loose ends are conveniently and neatly tied up at the end is just an easy way out for an author. You can definitely tell that this is Catherine O'Flynn's first book.
To summarize: it's not the worst thing I've ever read, but it's definitely not the best either. In a word, this book is mediocre.
Helpful Score: 4
This book was just ok for me. I had a really hard time getting into it, the story never really developed and it was kind of boring to me.
Helpful Score: 3
I just could not get into this book. It felt like I had picked up a preteen novel. I did not finish it but did jump ahead several times trying to find where it became interesting. It never happened.
Helpful Score: 2
Think "Harriet the Spy" for grown-ups. O'Flynn transports the reader to an "innocent" time of childhood imagination gone wild, and accurately captures as well the discontent and dismay of many young adults as well. The characters are interesting and the interweavings of the plot are neither far-fetched nor transparent. I couldn't put this down - had it read in less than 24 hours....
Helpful Score: 2
After hearing such good things about this novel, I was really excited about reading it. However, I was gravely disappointed. While the main character is a young teenager, the novel reads like a plodding, unexciting mystery filled with dull, overserious characters.
Helpful Score: 1
Interesting plot line, and a study in the complexities of human nature.
I really enjoyed this mystery. The story is told from multiple points of view and revolves around the change that a shopping mall brings to Birmingham, 1980s to present. Interesting characters. Might appeal to readers who enjoyed Kate Atkinson's novel Case Histories.
Helpful Score: 1
This book certainly did not grab my attention. I quit reading it after about 50 dull pages.
Just amazingly, astonishingly brilliant! And I don't say those words very often about a novel. So well-written and deftly plotted, but nary a word, nor twist of the plot, feels contrived or forced. It IS, ultimately, a book of sadness, but it is also a book of mysteries, of surprising humor, of heartache and surprises and imagination. Really a terrific read, with characters who will (at least for me) live on in my mind and heart. On of the best books I've read in 2010.
1984, Birmingham, England. Kate Meaney is the sole proprietor and lead detective for Falcon Investigations (assisted by her top secret assistant Mickey the Monkey, a stuffed animal). If Falcon Investigations had an advertisement, it would read something like this:
FALCON INVESTIGATIONS
Clues found. Suspects trailed. Crimes detected.
Visit our office equipped with the latest surveillance equipment.
Being only 10 years old and with limited transportation, Kate performs the majority of her detective work at the newly opened Green Oaks shopping center. Virtually ignored by her grandmother (her mother abandoned her when she was small and her beloved father died of a stroke not too long ago), Kate is free to spend hours trailing suspects at Green Oaks and observing the goings on in her neighborhood. One of her few friends is Adrian, the older son of a local shopkeeper and one of the few grown-ups who take Kate seriously. At school, Kate keeps mostly to herself until she befriends Teresa, a new girl who doesn't always do things by the rules either. Unfortunately, this fledgling friendship and Falcon Investigations comes to an abrupt end when Kate disappears without a trace.
Fast forward 20 years and we meet Kurt, a security guard at Green Oaks shopping center. Lonely and adrift in life, Kurt is startled to see a young girl appear on the mall's surveillance cameras after-hours. Yet no trace of the girl is found; she seems to be a figment of Kurt's imagination. Kurt is haunted by the girl and ends up teaming up with Lisa, the assistant manager of the record store in the mall, to figure out who the girl is and what happened to her.
Like Kurt, Lisa is also lonely (despite being in a relationship) and stuck in her life. She is haunted by the disappearance of her brother Adrian, who was suspected of being involved in Kate's disappearance years before and fled home to avoid media scrutiny. Realizing that the girl on the video may be Kate, Lisa teams up with Kurt to conduct their own after-hours investigation in Green Oakshoping to solve the mystery of Kate's disappearance and remove the cloud of suspicion from Adrian. Along the way, Lisa and Kurt begin to forge a fragile connection, which is shaken when their investigation begins to bear fruit.
I loved this book! It has the most interesting blend of humor intertwined with sadness. Almost everyone in the book is lost and adrift in their lives except for Katewho has purpose and drive to spare. O'Flynn does a brilliant job of creating fully realized characters. You get inside the heads of Kate, Kurt and Lisa, and I so enjoyed my time thereeven though I often found myself simultaneously laughing and filled with aching sadness for them. Even Green Oaks becomes a character of sortsbecoming a menacing and almost evil presence in the story.
Although there wasn't nearly enough of Kate in the book (and the reason for my not giving it 5 stars ... I guess I want to punish the author for not giving me more of Kate!), I was entranced by this story from the very first page until the last. O'Flynn does a brilliant job of tying everything together in a way that was both satisfying and realistic. It was hard for me to believe this was O'Flynn's first book. She is a true talent (as evidenced by this book winning the Costa First Novel Award), and I await her next book anxiously. Do yourself a favor and read this book! It is filled to the brim with all the good and bad aspects of the human existence. Books like this don't come along very often so don't miss it.
An Excerpt
There were always fresh flowers on these graves, along with stone teddy bears and faded dolls. Among them was the grave of Wayne West, a boy Kate remembered vaguely from Infants One, who had somehow put his head inside a plastic bag and suffocated. Every year he was remembered in prayers at school and in mass, but Kate always wondered if he had really died that way. It seemed such a convenient cautionary tale. Kate was waiting for the day that the teachers would present some blind boy in assembly who had lost his vision when someone had thrown a snowball with a stone in it. The school had already had a talk from a boy with one foot who had lost the other playing on the railway tracks. Kate had a gruesome image of teachers from competing schools bidding for injured children at a local hospital and ascribing a range of childhood misdemeanors to them. "I've got a paraplegic little girl here, ideal for stamping out leaning back on chairs." "How about this almost-blind boy, ideal for carrot promotion."
FALCON INVESTIGATIONS
Clues found. Suspects trailed. Crimes detected.
Visit our office equipped with the latest surveillance equipment.
Being only 10 years old and with limited transportation, Kate performs the majority of her detective work at the newly opened Green Oaks shopping center. Virtually ignored by her grandmother (her mother abandoned her when she was small and her beloved father died of a stroke not too long ago), Kate is free to spend hours trailing suspects at Green Oaks and observing the goings on in her neighborhood. One of her few friends is Adrian, the older son of a local shopkeeper and one of the few grown-ups who take Kate seriously. At school, Kate keeps mostly to herself until she befriends Teresa, a new girl who doesn't always do things by the rules either. Unfortunately, this fledgling friendship and Falcon Investigations comes to an abrupt end when Kate disappears without a trace.
Fast forward 20 years and we meet Kurt, a security guard at Green Oaks shopping center. Lonely and adrift in life, Kurt is startled to see a young girl appear on the mall's surveillance cameras after-hours. Yet no trace of the girl is found; she seems to be a figment of Kurt's imagination. Kurt is haunted by the girl and ends up teaming up with Lisa, the assistant manager of the record store in the mall, to figure out who the girl is and what happened to her.
Like Kurt, Lisa is also lonely (despite being in a relationship) and stuck in her life. She is haunted by the disappearance of her brother Adrian, who was suspected of being involved in Kate's disappearance years before and fled home to avoid media scrutiny. Realizing that the girl on the video may be Kate, Lisa teams up with Kurt to conduct their own after-hours investigation in Green Oakshoping to solve the mystery of Kate's disappearance and remove the cloud of suspicion from Adrian. Along the way, Lisa and Kurt begin to forge a fragile connection, which is shaken when their investigation begins to bear fruit.
I loved this book! It has the most interesting blend of humor intertwined with sadness. Almost everyone in the book is lost and adrift in their lives except for Katewho has purpose and drive to spare. O'Flynn does a brilliant job of creating fully realized characters. You get inside the heads of Kate, Kurt and Lisa, and I so enjoyed my time thereeven though I often found myself simultaneously laughing and filled with aching sadness for them. Even Green Oaks becomes a character of sortsbecoming a menacing and almost evil presence in the story.
Although there wasn't nearly enough of Kate in the book (and the reason for my not giving it 5 stars ... I guess I want to punish the author for not giving me more of Kate!), I was entranced by this story from the very first page until the last. O'Flynn does a brilliant job of tying everything together in a way that was both satisfying and realistic. It was hard for me to believe this was O'Flynn's first book. She is a true talent (as evidenced by this book winning the Costa First Novel Award), and I await her next book anxiously. Do yourself a favor and read this book! It is filled to the brim with all the good and bad aspects of the human existence. Books like this don't come along very often so don't miss it.
An Excerpt
There were always fresh flowers on these graves, along with stone teddy bears and faded dolls. Among them was the grave of Wayne West, a boy Kate remembered vaguely from Infants One, who had somehow put his head inside a plastic bag and suffocated. Every year he was remembered in prayers at school and in mass, but Kate always wondered if he had really died that way. It seemed such a convenient cautionary tale. Kate was waiting for the day that the teachers would present some blind boy in assembly who had lost his vision when someone had thrown a snowball with a stone in it. The school had already had a talk from a boy with one foot who had lost the other playing on the railway tracks. Kate had a gruesome image of teachers from competing schools bidding for injured children at a local hospital and ascribing a range of childhood misdemeanors to them. "I've got a paraplegic little girl here, ideal for stamping out leaning back on chairs." "How about this almost-blind boy, ideal for carrot promotion."
