Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Harman debuts with a funny, fast-paced blend of domestic thriller and social satire. Former girl group singer Florence "Flo" Grimes, now a hot mess of a single mom, is painfully aware that she and her 10-year-old son, Dylan, are pariahs at his posh North London school, St. Angeles--and that's before the frequently bullied boy becomes the prime suspect in the disappearance of his main tormentor. "The missing boy is ten-year-old Alfie Risby," Flo narrates in the novel's opening sentence, "and to be perfectly honest with you, he's a little shit." But her schadenfreude is tempered by mounting suspicion that Dylan, at minimum, knows more about the incident than he's letting on. When cops show up to question Dylan, Flo has already sent him for an extended visit with her ex-husband, deciding the best way to clear his name will be to solve the mystery herself. Unfortunately, her skill set--which includes passably covering the Mariah Carey canon--seems woefully inadequate for sleuthing, which makes her new, fellow American friend Jenny Choi a godsend, given Jenny's still-burning teen dream of being a PI. It's not all diet gin-and-tonics and giggles for the pair, though--especially once their digging turns up dirty secrets about Alfie's parents and St. Angeles itself. Harman's winning protagonist, page-turning plot, and delightfully irreverent tone will have readers clamoring for a sequel. Agent: Alyssa Reuben, WME. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT Harman's first novel introduces readers to Florence Grimes, a 31-year-old American expat living in London who is jobless years after experiencing the end of her girl band career. She has chosen to live life by the seat of her pants; her way of life and her perceptions of others are laughable, as she's unable to see her own faults. The only thing that keeps her going is her 10-year-old son, Dylan, who's enrolled in a prestigious, private school for boys. When her son's bully, Alfie, goes missing, she is worried about her son's possible involvement in his disappearance, so she goes into supermom mode by trying to secretly solve the mystery with the help of another mother from the school. As she noses her way into the privileged lives of the parents and school administrators, Florence endangers and incriminates herself in the process and will face a moral decision that could compromise herself and her son's status. Harman creates a unique main character who experiences significant growth and moral life lessons along the way, which will have readers rooting for her triumph in the end. VERDICT This thriller debut will add flair to libraries' crime fiction sections.--Lacey Webster
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A former girl-band singer adrift in her life and career gets drawn into a missing persons case involving the "little shit" who's been bullying her 10-year-old son in this debut novel. Florence Grimes isn't like the other mothers at St. Angeles, the posh London school her son, Dylan, attends. A divorcée and almost--pop star from Florida, she runs an online balloon delivery service and dreams of making a Mariah Carey--style comeback. Her going-nowhere-fast life suddenly gets turned upside down when Alfie Risby, heir to a frozen food fortune and her son's tormentor, goes missing during a school field trip. Dylan becomes a major person of interest in the investigation that follows; then Florence discovers Alfie's backpack in Dylan's room. Horror mounting, she reads one of Alfie's notebooks and learns that her son has made threats to kill his classmate. Readers are quickly pulled into the escalating drama by the sharp-tongued Florence, whose observations about the glossy St. Angeles "school mums" and their "anorexic whippet dog[s]," cheating husbands, and endless games of social one-upmanship are as unsparing as they are hilarious. Her commitment to protecting Dylan becomes the catalyst for her evolution into an amateur sleuth who stumbles across secrets so explosive they transform her and her son's lives forever. Sly red herrings and surprise reveals are par for the course in this tightly plotted story that, while it satirizes the British obsessions with appearance and class, also celebrates the power of personal redemption through love. A smart, page-turning suspense novel debut. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
