When Ted’s teenage cousin Salim disappears between the time he got on the giant ferris wheel known as the London Eye and the time the passengers in the car in which he was riding disembark, it’s a mystery that baffles everyone from his family to the police. As hours pass and unease grows for Salim’s safety, Ted begins to make a list of possible answers, from the logical to the improbable to the seemingly impossible. Only his older sister, Kat, is willing to listen—something highly unusual, as she generally is far too involved in her own life to pay him much attention, but this is a highly unusual circumstance. Ted, who has Asperger’s syndrome, has spent a lot of time practicing social interactions to ease his way in the world, but he’s a master at seeing details and patterns and things out of place, and considering their meaning. He needs both the skills that come to him naturally and the ones he works so hard to master as he and Kat try to figure out what happened to Salim. The dynamics of Ted’s family—both immediate and extended—are funny, touching, and wholly believeable, a dimension all the more critical as they also turn out to be at the heart of Siobhan Dowd’s engaging and intriguing mystery. (Ages 10–14)

In this fast-paced thriller, Ted (whose brain runs on a “different operating system”) and his sister Kat join forces to solve the mystery of what happened to their cousin Salim. Could he have just vanished into thin air aboard the London Eye? Their search for clues takes them across London as they race against time to save Salim. The unique voice of Ted as narrator gives the reader a glimpse into his way of thinking. He has Asperger’s syndrome, and this difference enables him to solve the mystery, when even the police are stumped. 2009 USBBY Outstanding International Books List, Book Sense Children’s Pick List Award 2008, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year Award 2008, Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice Award 2008, Horn Book Fan fare Award 2008, Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Books Award, and the Book Links Lasting Connection Award 2008. ae

Originally published by David Fickling Books Great Britain, in 2007.

Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye. But after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off–except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery. This is an unput-downable spine-tingling thriller–a race against time.