Prior to this project I had ashamedly never heard of Siobhan Dowd, and it wasn't until I did a little research for this post that I discovered Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls was in fact Dowd's story, and he wrote it for her after her death. That was a lovely little factoid, plus I also found out that Robin Stevens (of Murder Most Unladylike fame) has written the sequel to The London Eye Mystery, The Guggenheim Mystery, based on Dowd's original ideas too. So there's lots of literary love going on there! Hurrah!
Obviously being a mystery story I can't, and won't, give away too much! Our narrator, Ted, has Asperger's. He struggles with reading body language and social interactions, but knows everything there is to know about meteorology. He dreams of becoming a meteorologist, and the book is littered with weather facts and references, which are a really interesting aside to main the story. That's also how Ted's disability is treated, as an aside. It is never named, sometimes called Ted's syndrome, or as Ted puts it, his brain just runs on a different operating system to everyone else's. Personally I can't decide on whether not naming Ted's Asperger's is a bad thing or not? He often makes references to the way he deals with situations using tools he has been given by a teacher, especially when recognising emotions in others. He also has physical reactions to stressful situations, which are pointed out all the way through the book. But these things this are never attributed to his Asperger's, just noted, and we recognise him as being different, but not necessarily in a bad way. Ted uses his different operating system to solve the mystery in a way no one else could, just like Christopher Boone, in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime. Books like these highlight the value of thinking slightly differently and hopefully encouraging child readers on the Autistic spectrum to value their differences and not see them as a disability. It may also help children understand more about Autism if they come across it in others. So maybe, by not specifically pointing out that Ted has Asperger's, Dowd has very cleverly made the subject so much more accessible.
When Ted's Aunt Gloria and cousin Salim come to stay there is one thing, as a tourist to London, that Salim wants to do. He wants to ride the London Eye! Ted and his sister Kat have been up before and both agree that it's an amazing experience, Ted explaining about the wheel's engineering, and Kat excitedly telling Salim about the views. It's agreed and the three of them set out for the Eye the next day. Whilst queuing to buy their tickets a stranger offers them his, saying that he's changed his mind and didn't fancy it, claiming to be claustrophobic. As there is just one ticket, and Ted and Kat have been up before, they let Salim board the pod in place of the strange man. Ted notes the time, 11.32, knowing that Salim will be back done in precisely 30 minutes. Just as Ted predicts at 12.02 Salim's pod touches down, the doors open, but Salim is nowhere to be seen.....
That's all i'm going to say, so you'll have to read it if you want to know what happens next! Has Salim vanished into thin air? Was he hiding under the seat in the pod hoping to go round again? Had Ted got the time wrong? Or did he spontaneously combust? Ted must consider all these potential scenarios and more! With the help of his sister Kat, can he solve the London Eye Mystery and bring Salim home?
Thanks for reading, L x
Next up, Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield.
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