The Disappearances of Madalena Grimaldi: A Claudia Valentine Mystery - Hardcover

Day, Marele

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802732771 ISBN 13: 9780802732774

Publisher: Walker & Co, 1994

Synopsis

Australian private detective Claudia Valentine takes on the case of a missing teenager who vanished after an argument with her father, while at the same time trying to determine what happened to her own father, who had disappeared thirty years earlier

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Day's American debut features a pair of doubly deceptive disappearances for Sydney p.i. Claudia Valentine. The one she's taking money to investigate is that of 15-year-old Madalena Grimaldi, vanished from her mother's house ten days ago, though evidently returned since then to sneak some of her stuff out. Claudia traces her to an impromptu commune in the neighborhood of Darlinghurst, but it's too late: Madalena's disappeared from there, too--most likely, if her friends can be believed, she's gone literally underground. Meantime, Claudia's putting more energy into celebrating her mother's remarriage by tracking down her father, ten years missing. And again the disappearance is even more mysterious than it seems. Guy Valentine turns up almost immediately as a dead derelict, fallen into Rushcutters Bay, drowned, and long since cremated and forgotten--except by the menacing copper who tells Claudia she'd better drop her investigation into exactly how her father died. Claudia's narration, apart from the obligatory wry self- deprecation, is low-key and businesslike--which is more than can be said for her professional ethics, since she's constantly neglecting the girl she's supposed to be tracking down in favor of her much more interesting father. Gritty Australian cityscapes a plus. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal:

YA-Originally published in Australia, this is the fourth "Claudia Valentine" mystery, but the first to be transplanted to the U.S. Surely it won't be the last. Claudia is a 30+ detective living above a pub in Sydney. She is the noncustodial mother of two adolescents, occasionally has too much to drink, sometimes accepts boring jobs for the money, and makes embarrassing mistakes-she's a genuinely real (and likable) person. She is hired to find the missing teenage daughter of a local restaurant owner, and locates the girl's hideout only to find she is missing again. At the same time, Claudia is trying to solve the 30-year-old mystery of her own missing father. Teens will relate to the runaway girl's problems and feelings as well as the occasional lack of adult understanding. The Australian slang interspersed throughout the text is great fun, the violence is minimal, and the mysteries are neatly tied up in the end. An engaging, quick read.
Carol DeAngelo, formerly at Fairfax County Library System, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker & Co
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0802732771
• ISBN 13: 9780802732774
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 219