Dowd, Siobhan. The London Eye Mystery. Oxford: David Fickling, 2008. Print.
Summary
Ted knows almost everything there is to know about the weather. It's interacting with other people that he doesn't always get. When his aunt "Hurricane" Gloria and cousin Salim blow through London en route to relocating to New York from Manchester, Ted finds a kindred spirit in his cousin. The family takes Salim to the London Eye, where Ted and his sister Kat are given a ticket by a shady character which they in turn give to Salim. Salim goes in, his car goes up... but when it touches the ground again, Salim doesn't get out. Feeling responsible, Ted and Kat take it upon themselves to find Salim.
My Impressions
When it comes to mystery stories. I can always give or take the mystery. Its the characters and their surroundings that appeals to me, from Sherlock Holmes to Hawaii Five-0. All that to say that this novel is a very satisfying, well-written story with appealing characters. I was cheering for Ted the whole time as he learned in many ways to open himself to the world around him. The other family members are all fully-fleshed out as well. As for the mystery itself, it unfolds in a very believable way, something I especially appreciated given that it was an "amateur detective" story, a sub-genre that often lends itself to stretches of credibility. The payoff, both in the plot and of the character arcs, is very satisfying.
What Other Reviewers Said
When Ted's cousin Salim visits London, he insists on riding "The London Eye," an immense observation wheel. A stranger gives Salim a free ticket; Salim enters a passenger capsule; 30 minutes later, when the capsule returns from its rotation, Salim has vanished. What follows is an intricate mystery, related from the unique point of view of 12-year-old Ted, who has Asperger's Syndrome. Ted is a brilliant but literal thinker who sees things in things in terms of mathematical probabilities. His brain, though differently wired, is as efficient as a computer. It is precisely the logical mind needed to solve the mystery, and it saves Salim's life. This is a well-constructed puzzle, and mystery lovers will delight in connecting the clues, but what makes this a riveting read is Ted's voice. He is bright, honest, brave and very funny about his "syndrome" (his teacher has given him a cartoon code for recognizing the five basic emotions). The message, grippingly delivered, is that kids, even differently abled ones, are worth paying attention to. (Fiction. 9-14) (1)
A 12-year-old Londoner with something like Asperger's syndrome narrates this page-turner, which grabs readers from the beginning and doesn't let go. As Ted and his older sister Katrina watch, their visiting cousin Salim boards a "pod" for a ride on the London Eye, a towering tourist attraction with a 360-degree view of the city--but unlike his fellow passengers, Salim never comes down. He has vanished. At the outset Ted explains that he has cracked the case: "Having a funny brain that runs on a different operating system from other people's helped me to figure out what happened." The tension lies in the implicit challenge to solve the mystery ahead of Ted, who turns his intense observational powers on the known facts, transforming his unnamed disability into an investigative tool while the adults' emotions engulf them. Dowd ratchets up the stakes repeatedly: is a boy in the morgue Salim? Has he drowned? Been kidnapped? Katrina and Ted work together to solve the puzzle, developing new respect for each other. The author wryly locates the humor as Ted wrangles with his symptoms (learning to lie represents progress) but also allows Ted an ample measure of grace. Comparisons to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time are inevitable--this release was delayed when Mark Haddon's book (from the same publisher) became a bestseller--but Dowd makes clearer overtures to younger readers. Just as impressive as Dowd's recent debut, A Swift Pure Cry, and fresh cause to mourn her premature death this year. Ages 8-12. (2)
Suggested Activities
Older readers will definitely want to check out Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, another British mystery featuring a protagonist on the autism spectrum. The London Eye Mystery is the better of the two in my opinion but of course, there is always room for a healthy debate.
Other Citations
(1) "THE LONDON EYE MYSTERY." Kirkus Reviews 75.24 (2007): 1294. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 31 Oct. 2010.
(2) "The London Eye Mystery." Publishers Weekly 254.48 (2007): 70. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 31 Oct. 2010.
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