Me: Lucas Swain--I'm nearly sixteen years old and live in London. I was fairly normal until the night I found Violet. Then everything changed. The Missing: Dad. He disappeared five years ago. Nobody knows what happened to him, and nobody cares except me. It's enough to drive you crazy. The Dead: That's Violet . . . in the urn. Speaking of crazy--I know she's trying to tell me something, and I think it's about my father. . . . A dead lady may not be much to go on, but my dad's out there somewhere, and it's up to me to find out where. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Starred Review. It's difficult to pinpoint just what makes this British debut so quietly disturbing yet so compulsively readable. Valentine simultaneously attempts a detective caper, a commentary on euthanasia and a youth's pithy send up of an unfair world and succeeds. Despite its oddball plot, in which 15-year-old Lucas inadvertently stumbles upon an abandoned urn of ashes in a cab depot and, in an uncanny twist of fate, unearths the truth about his father, who disappeared five years earlier, the novel raises serious questions about death even as it exposes the entrails of a broken family. Even with the heavy subject matter, Valentine gives humor free reign, as Lucas mouths off in cheeky British twang about his annoying sister, his lack of friends and his sense that he is the only one still holding a torch for his father. Ages 14 up. A memorable new voice. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Starred Review. Gr 8 11 Sixteen-year-old Lucas idealizes his father, Pete, who disappeared when the boy was six. Mum says they were abandoned, although Lucas makes excuses for his dad. On entering a minicab office one day, he finds himself drawn to an urn containing the ashes of a woman named Violet, which someone left in a cab years before. Part mystery, part magical realism, part story of personal growth, and in large part simply about a funny teenager making light of his and his family's pain, this short novel is engaging from start to finish. It feels like Frank Cottrell Boyce's Framed (2006) or Millions (2004, both HarperCollins) for a slightly older crowd especially in the all-too-human quirky family members and their willingness to employ creative methods to secure their ends as well as in the contemporary middle-class London setting. Throughout, Lucas's tongue-in-cheek lists (e.g., "good reasons to make friends with a dead lady in an urn") relieve the seriousness of his family's situation and his relatively mature revelations about them and himself. Lucas steadily unravels the two mysteries the deceased Violet and the missing Pete and leaves readers with a highly satisfying surprise inside the final knot. Neither too heavy nor too fluffy. Rhona Campbell, Washington, DC Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

*Starred Review* Lucas feels surrounded by the missing: his sister avoids home, his mother is absorbed in a midlife crisis, his grandfather has dementia, and his journalist father went missing years ago. With so many ghostlike family members, it's not surprising that Lucas begins to sense a connection with the dead. While waiting in a London office lobby, a funeral urn draws his attention, and he feels an overpowering urge to know the person inside. A string of ensuing coincidences tie him-and his father-to the deceased, Violet, a famous pianist. Is she trying to communicate with him? Lucas embarks on an investigation into her life, and his spine-tingling discoveries allow him to powerfully and finally lay the memory of his father to rest. Lucas's pitch-perfect voice, the authentic family relationships, the mild psychic element, and the poignant, coming-of-age mystery will stay with the reader long after the book ends. An award-winner in the UK, Valentine's debut novel shines richly like the polished wood of Violet's urn. Booth, Heather. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.