The London Eye Mystery Review (Siobhan Dowd)

When Aunt Gloria's son, Salim, mysteriously disappears from a sealed pod on the London Eye, everyone is frantic. Has he spontaneous combusted? (Ted's theory.) Has he been kidnapped? (Aunt Gloria's theory.) Is he even still alive? (The family's unspoken fear.) Even the police are baffled. Ted, whose brain runs on its own unique operating system, and his older sister, Kat, overcome their prickly relationship to become sleuthing partners. They follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin, while time ticks dangerously by.

I wouldn't say that this was a bad read, but it was a little boring, as far as mysteries go. But I will get to that later. I was expecting Ted to be annoying, but he is a surprisingly likable character. Kat is the annoying one, and I wished several times that she would disappear and never return.

That said - on to the mystery. It was not as involved as I was hoping. The Reader does not get the pleasure of solving the case with the characters (though I figured out about half of the answers fairly quickly), but instead only receive part of Ted's thought process so we are almost as much in the dark as everyone else. It can be annoying. Every mystery Reader wants to be given the opportunity of following their "detective's" thought patterns so they can feel as if they are assisting in solving the case. All in all, the mystery was a disappointment and was wrapped up in a manner that left me feeling a little sad and bereft of concern for the characters themselves.

Despite the mystery's lack of real interest, I have to say that I enjoyed the Author's writing. I love British writers - there is a quality to their style that is lost in a lot of other literature. At times, it might be difficult for someone who doesn't know much about British terms, but there are not too many instances like that. I usually dislike modern-set stories (who wants to read about the 21st century? We live it, after all), but Siobhan Dowd's writing made all the difference and kept me interested enough to finish the book.

Star Rating: 3/5 (liked it)