Garvie Smith is, in some ways, your typical lazy teenager, lacking in achievement, sense and aspirations, filling time by lying on his bed staring at the ceiling or smoking with his mates in the park. Popular with school friends and indulged by teachers who are charmed by his disarming smile, he is the despair of his long-suffering mother.
But then beautiful Chloe Dow, his ex-girlfriend and the most popular girl in school, is murdered.
The shock of this manages to do what his teachers never could, stimulate his higher than average IQ in an effort to solve the mystery of whodunnit before the hopeless but dutiful local police officer, DI Singh. What follows is a fantastically fast-paced mystery with a good dose of red herrings which kept me guessing right until the final chapter.
I really enjoyed this book, especially trying to discover the identity of the culprit. There were enough clues to keep me interested and engaged, but not so many that I felt the way to the answer was being obviously signposted. Indeed, there were numerous times when I felt I had it all worked out, but then was foiled by a major plot twist, or re-evaluation of the clues - when the big reveal came I was shocked, and slightly annoyed at the lack of hints! Except it wasn’t the big reveal after all, and the tension held for a good few chapters before the gripping ending.
My only minor gripe is about the character of Garvie: self-obssessed, arrogant and down-right unlikeable. I could understand his thoughts and feelings, but I just couldn’t seem to agree with him and always felt a bit disconnected. Perhaps he was inspired by the classic flawed character of Sherlock Holmes, but for me something just didn’t click. However, DI Singh was amazing as a junior police officer determined to prove his capability to his overprotective and cautious superiors, and understandably annoyed at the repeated appearance of a teenage boy who knows more about the mystery than he does! He seems a wholly real character, flawed yet likeable and fleshed out with his Sikh religion, complete with bullet-proof turban.
Overall, a fantastic murder-mystery that I highly recommend!
Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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