Kid Alone: A Garvie Smith Mystery - Hardcover

Mason, Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1338036491 ISBN 13: 9781338036497

Publisher: David Fickling Books, 2017

Synopsis

Meet Garvie Smith. Good-for-nothing scoundrel, genius, and sometime detective. Right in the middle of exams hell -- until now.A boy from Marsh Academy has been shot, with no clear motive and no clues. Disgraced police detective Raminder Singh is on the case, and he's determined to keep Garvie away.But Garvie knows he's the only one who has any idea where to look for the answers. Starting with his best friend's girlfriend. And it's going to take more than pointless studying or flunking his tests to stop him getting involved.Exams. What exams?

About this title

About the Author

Simon Mason has written both children's and adult books. His first adult novel, a black comedy entitled The Great English Nude, won a Betty Trask Award, and a book for children, Moon Pie, was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in the United Kingdom. Running Girl was the first in a new series starring Garvie Smith. Simon lives in Oxford, England, with his wife and their two children.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Kid Alone: "The police Humvee came quietly along the road on overlarge tires and stopped alongside them. The window went down and Inspector's Dowell's face appeared, as before. "Why aren't you three in school?" Smudge and Felix looked modestly at the ground. "Doctor's note." "Study leave." Dowell looked at Garvie, who had said nothing. "You?" "Field trip." "To an industrial estate? Studying what?" "Police competency. Anthropology, special option." Dowell's eyes locked on to Garvie's. His face changed color around the edges. "Tell you something, son," he said in a low growl. "I'm going to remember you." Garvie shrugged. "Yeah, well. I'm going to try to forget you." There was a moment when Dowell seemed to reach for the door handle, but his in-car radio came on, and he gave Garvie a last stare, wound up the window, and pulled away down the rutted driveway that led to the main road. "Got a death wish, have you?" Smudge said to Garvie. "The man's a nutter. Didn't you see his eyes? Didn’t you hear what he said?" "He said he was going to remember me." "No, he didn't. He said he was going to make it his business to seek you out and hunt you down and crush you into tiny bits of human rubbish. For a bright boy, sometimes you really don’t pay attention." "He's right, Garv," Felix said. "Now he's clocked us. Best place for us is a long way from here." Garvie considered this. "Let's go," Smudge said. They turned to go out of the gate and Garvie turned the other way and began to walk back down the access road toward the cordoned-off storage facility. Smudge and Felix looked after him, baffled. "What are you doing? That's, like, the wrong way." "Should've realized earlier," Garvie said over his shoulder. "How much they need my help."

About this edition

• Publisher: David Fickling Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1338036491
• ISBN 13: 9781338036497
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 384