Dead Man's Cove (Laura Marlin Mysteries 1): Book 1

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Laura's an orphan who has spent most o her life in a children's home, dreaming of long-lost relatives coming to find her. When an uncle suddenly does come to claim her and bring her to live with him in his seaside home in a small Cornish town, Laura is excited to begin her new life. But while her uncle is kind and gives her plenty of things she's never had in her life (including a doggo friend), he's not so generous with his time, always busy with some vague assignments and working at strange hours. Laura also can't work out if the shopkeeper's boy actually wants to be friends with her or not, and there's lots of suspicious and worrying things happening with him and his family, which of course Laura must investigate. But aside that I did love Laura and how smart she was, and that she had a dream, to become a detective. And that she didn't let anything stand between her and that dream. Plus, I just love a girl who loves books and reading. At first I was wondering if Laura went to school, but then it was mentioned. I do have to say that I wasn't a fan of the people there. The teacher who apparently had his dreams shattered (at least that is how it felt to me) and so was enormously discouraging these young kids. The way he talked when Laura told her dreamjob? Man, that is just too much. Way to throw a dream out of the window. I get that you have to stay realistic, but let a kid dream, so much is possible these days that dreams can be fulfilled. I am glad that Laura stood her ground though. *cheers*

After she arrives in St. Ives, where her uncle lives, she finds all sorts of mysteries that call out to her to be solved: What is her uncle's real occupation? Why does he forbid her to go to Dead Man's Cove? Why has the silent boy Tariq, who lives with an Indian couple who run a grocery store, suddenly rejected her friendship? Who has been leaving her messages in a bottle? These are only a few of the puzzles that Laura's curiosity won't let her leave unsolved.Dead Man's Cove was the first book chosen for my monthly book club. I had been wanting to read it for a while because it sounded like a perfect middle grade adventure and mystery in the vein of Enid Blyton, plus the cover is stunning! Dead Man's Cove is the first story in the Laura Marlin Mysteries series, following 11-year-old Laura as she works on becoming an ace detective, inspired by her favourite fictional detective Matt Walker. Laura is living in Sylvan Meadow's Children's Home when she is discovered by her uncle, Calvin Redfern, and taken to live in St Ives, Cornwall, where her detective skills are about to be put to use. The ending, oh boy, the story was already fast-paced, but with this we totally sped up. The last part of the book was one that had me totally immersed in the book, I just had to know if Tariq and Laura would be all right. year old Laura is an orphan. Her father, an American soldier, disappeared long before she was born, and her mother died during childbirth. All her life, Laura has lived at the Sylvan Meadow's Children Home. Always hoping and dreaming of finding a home where she can stay longer than half a day because she is fussy. And then finally, such a dream comes true. Her uncle, her mother's brother, is found, and agrees to take her in. She moves to Cornwall to live with her uncle and immediately falls in love with it.

The whole plot was really good and the ending was really well done. I won't spoil it (it being a mystery book and all) but all of the loose ends were tied. I didn't figure out the mystery before the end of the book, which was really nice because that can be really annoying. All of the clues did actually connect to the mystery. I can't really say much about what the plot is, but it really is an exciting adventure from start to finish. Dead Man’s Cove won the 2011 Blue Peter Book of the Year award and was short-listed for Children’s Book of the Year at the Galaxy National Book Awards. Lauren St John was born and raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). From the age of 11 she lived on a game reserve, which provided the inspiration for her memoir Rainbow’s End and her White Giraffe series of children’s books. Dead Man’s Cove is the first in her series of Laura Marlin mysteries. Five Run Away Togetherby Enid Blyton. I think I read my first Famous Five novel when I was six and I was hooked from that moment on. Sure there are bits of that have dated and Enid Blyton is not the world’s greatest prose stylist. But decades on, the appeal of the Famous Five is as strong as ever. Impossible to resist. The Tiger who Came to Teaby Judith Kerr. I fell in love with the smiley, chubby tiger in Judith Kerr’s classic picturebook during one hot Zimbabwe summer when I had to read it four or five times a day to my niece. If it had been up to her I’d have read it even more frequently. Each time I got to the end, she pleaded for us to begin again. Pure genius.Tariq? I loved that guy, though I did feel sorry for what was happening to him. As for what was going on with him? It took me a bit longer to find out all the details, sure, I had some suspicions but I hadn't expected the story to take that turn.

Of course, we can’t ignore the fact that this is a children’s book – and with a main character aged 11, it is probably targetting 8-10 year olds as its main audience. One of the best things about Dead Man’s Cove is it manages to do everything I’ve mentioned above, keeping the prose simple enough for an 8 year old, yet without being condescending. I can’t say exactly what issues are being dealt with within the book without giving too much of the story away, but they are serious and complicated issues. Dead Man’s Cove challenges its audience, confronts them with some of the stark realities of the world, and it’s all the better for it. It’s a charming little detective story, without being cutesy. There’s real threat and real danger, and serious issues explored within the narrative. Laura is a great character – very relatable, and admirable. She’s independent, intelligent, brave and loyal, but she has her flaws too, making her rounded and believable. When orphaned Laura Marlin is sent from the children’s home to live with her uncle in Cornwall, she dreams of a life of excitement just like the characters in her favourite detective novels. But when she gets to Uncle Calvin’s spooky house, she is confronted with mysteries. Nothing is as it seems. Is Tariq, the shopkeeper’s silent son, a friend or an enemy? Why does her uncle seem so intent on hiding his past? And why is everyone so afraid of Dead Man’s Cove? When Laura finds a message in a bottle, she starts to investigate. But this deadly quest will test her detective skills to the limit – and put her on a collision course with villains who will stop at nothing to get their own way. Laura’s adventures begin in this first captivating mystery from the bestselling author of the White Giraffe series.I liked the opening of the story, the chapter size (just the right length for a newly-fluent reader), the characters and the setting of St. Ives which I must now visit but what holds the whole thing together is Laura who is a well-crafted and relatable character in that she is a flawed as she is adventurous. I'm all for scarred and flawed heroes and St. John has done a great job with Laura. It seems that orphaned children finding out they have flawed yet deeply interesting relations who step up to look after them is a slice of narrative planning that works well. A truly outstanding, totally enthralling mystery set in Cornwall, England, this is one of the very best children's mysteries I've ever read. The heroine, 11-year-old orphan Laura Marlin, has been rescued from the children's home by her mysterious uncle, Calvin Redfern. Laura loves books, especially detective stories, and wants to become a detective like her favorite fictional detective, Matt Walker. What was up with her uncle? I knew it very fast, and then it was fun reading to see how long it took Laura to figure it all out. I did think it took her quite some time, and it was mostly due to her stalking her uncle in the night and overhearing a conversation. :P Lauren St Johngrew up surrounded by horses and wild animals on a farm and game reserve in Zimbabwe, the inspiration for her memoir, Rainbow’s End. After studying journalism, she relocated to the UK, where she spent nearly a decade on the European and PGA Tours as golf correspondent to the SundayTimes. She also wrote the acclaimed music biography Hardcore Troubadour: The Life & Near Death of Steve Earle. She is the author of the multi-award- winning The White Giraffe series for children, as well as the Laura Marlin mysteries, the first of which, Dead Man’s Cove, won the 2011 Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Her bestselling One Dollar Horse series was followed by YA horse romance, The Glory, now optioned for film.