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Summary
Summary
The haunting new novel from an acclaimed crime writer - Laurence Schofield's world was torn apart when his teenage daughter vanished. No trace was ever found. But six years later, a TV crew filming in London records a few seconds' footage of a girl who just could be her. Schofield heads for the capital. But this isn't the London of the tourist brochures: it's the Tinderbox, an area of dangerous dereliction where the homeless have created an alternative society with its own rules . . .
Author Notes
Jo Bannister was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, England, and resides in County Down, North Ireland. Bannister left school at sixteen and went to work for the County Down Spectator, eventually becoming its editor. She left the paper in 1988 to devote time to writing works of fiction.
Bannister is a noted mystery writer. Detective Chief Inspector Frank Shapiro, Detective Inspector Liz Graham, and Detective Seargent Cal Donovan make up a trio featured in a series of books including A Taste for Burning, Burning Desires, and A Bleeding of Innocents.
Her titles also include Flawed, From Fire and Flood, Closer Still, Fathers and Sins, and Liars All.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Six years after the disappearance of Laurence Schofield's vivacious 15-year-old daughter, Cassie, the Birmingham architect desperately chases a clue to her whereabouts in this socially conscious stand-alone from prolific British author Bannister (Breaking Faith). Tom, Cassie's younger brother, believes he spots her in a school documentary about the homeless in London, and Schofield becomes obsessed with finding his daughter-opening wounds that he and his wife, Jan, had covered but not allowed to heal. He leaves Birmingham for London on a search that will take him to the Tinderbox, the titular brutish underworld even the police fear to enter, where he forms a relationship with a homeless teenage boy, Jonah, who saves his life. Schofield's journey rocks his solid middle-class values and notions of family, and forces him to make difficult moral choices. Bannister once again proves herself a skilled storyteller in this poignant, memorable story. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Bannister takes a break from her Brodie Farrell/Daniel Hood series (Breaking Faith, 2005, etc.) for an authentic London nightmare: a father's desperate search for the daughter who vanished six years ago. There was no reason the day of Cassie Schofield's clarinet exam should have been any different from any other. But after her father, a Birmingham architect, dropped her off in front of her music school, she seems to have been swallowed up. Laurence and Jan Schofield have had six years since then to wonder whether she's dead or alive, whether she ran off on a whim or planned to escape in advance, whether she left willingly or under duress. So when their son Tom glimpses someone he thinks might be his sister on a documentary about the London homeless, it's not surprising that Jan can't face the possibility that her daughter is still alive. "I tried love," she spits at her husband. "See where it got me!" Laurence, unable to let go of this last hope, follows the trail to London, where he swiftly learns just how mean the streets can be. Descending into the bowels of the underworld called the Tinderbox, he finds predatory kids, ruthless street gangs fighting deadly turf wars and dangers he literally can't comprehend. Redemption comes from a wholly unexpected quarter. The rabbit-hole world Bannister evokes is so relentlessly and convincingly sordid that her quietly hopeful ending seems nothing short of miraculous. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Laurence Schofield is a happy man with a good job and a nice family--until the day his daughter Cassie disappears. Fearing the worst, the Schofields wait as days, then weeks, pass with no word and no clue as to what's happened. Six years later, Laurence sees a program about the homeless. In one of the shots is the grainy image of a girl who might be Cassie. Filled with hope, Laurence vows to find her. Tracking down the reporter who made the documentary, Laurence learns just what an alien landscape the world of the homeless can be, especially for children and teens. Cold and hunger are constants, leading some to kill for a pair of boots. Laurence eventually finds a homeless boy named Jonah who offers to be his guide. The two face a series of frightening and violent people and events, and Laurence nearly gives up. The end result isn't exactly what he hoped for, but it teaches him valuable lessons about himself and the world. A spellbinding plot that grabs the reader from page one, combined with a gritty and disturbing look at the world of the homeless, make this blend of thriller and social realism an eye-opening and thoroughly compelling read. --Emily Melton Copyright 2006 Booklist