What Was Lost

Title: What Was Lost

Author: Catherine O’Flynn

Publisher: Scribe Publications

$27.99

Catherine O’Flynn’s What Was Lost is the captivating novel of a young girls disappearance and two unlikely people who solve the mystery ten years later, one with a secret that could break the other.

Orphaned Kate Meaney is a ten year old detective who, with the help of Mickey the monkey, keeps her highly trained eye on the comings and goings of the council estate and Green Oaks, the local shopping mall.

But when Kate vanishes, suspicion falls on her only friend, 22 year old shop keeper Adrian. Unable to bear being unfairly cast as the perpetrator, Adrian becomes Green Oaks’ second missing person.

Tten years later Adrian’s sister Lisa now works at the Green Oaks Mall. She strikes up an unlikely friendship with Kurt, a mall security guard, who sees images of a young girl with a toy monkey in the CCTV monitors – an image no one else can see. Together Lisa and Kurt begin to unravel the mystery of Kate disappearance.

But Kurt is hiding a dark truth about the day Kate disappeared. Should he tell Lisa so that Adrian’s name might be cleared but in doing so, risk his chance at love?

What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn for me was an unputdownable, gripping read. The writing as young Kate at the book’s beginning was particularly well done; authentically voiced and engaging. The book has won much acclaim for the author, including the prestigious Costa First Novel Award 2007 highlighting her as an author to watch for in the future.

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First published in Nexus Magazine, Issue 6, 28 April 2008. Reproduced with kind permission.