A Satisfying Mystery with More

Although there's a mystery at the center of the novel, What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn doesn't feel primarily like a mystery. The first section follows 10-year-old detective Kate as she navigates her Birmingham, U.K. neighborhood in a world where almost no one notices her. Her whole life has a somewhat sinister feel to it, including her teacher Mrs. Finnegan who is "criminally unsuited to teaching small children."

The second section of the book takes place twenty years later and centers around Lisa, a young woman who works in a music store in the Green Oaks shopping mall in the same neighborhood. The strongest parts of the book are the painful, true and funny descriptions of the tedium and humiliation of working in customer service while serving a sadistic and ambitious boss. According to the author's bio, she was drawing on her experience working in record stores.

The two sections of the book tie together and overlap in many directions for an interesting and satisfying conclusion.

To find this book in the Library, go to our website at www.newberglibrary.org

Reviewed by Jean