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Title details for What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn - Available

What Was Lost

by Catherine O'Flynn
Catherine Skinner
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

In the 1980s, Kate Meaney is hard at work as a junior detective. Busy trailing "suspects" and carefully observing everything around her at the newly opened Green Oaks shopping mall, she forms an unlikely friendship with Adrian, the son of a local shopkeeper. But when this curious, independent-spirited young girl disappears, Adrian falls under suspicion and is hounded out of his home by the press. Then, in 2003, Adrian's sister Lisa - stuck in a dead-end relationship - is working as a manager at Your Music, a discount record store. Every day she tears her hair out at the outrageous behavior of her customers and colleagues. But along with a security guard, Kurt, she becomes entranced by the little girl glimpsed on the mall's surveillance cameras. As their after-hours friendship intensifies, Lisa and Kurt investigate how these sightings might be connected to the unsettling history of Green Oaks itself.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    July 1, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780792755791
      • File size: 198055 KB
      • Duration: 06:52:36

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Junior detective Kate Meaney, who solves "crimes" at her local mall along with her stuffed monkey, goes missing. Her one true friend-- 22-year-old Adrian--is blamed. Catherine Skinner shines as Kate. Skinner imbues her with all the wonder, curiosity, and busyness of a child who is keeping her mind active to avoid the emotional pain of having lost her parents. Skinner stumbles, however, after Kate is kidnapped and the book's focus shifts from Kate's perspective to an examination of the crime scene--the local mall. Skinner's sharp accent and high-pitched voice don't help a mystery derailed by tedious details about a shopping mall. J.T. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 17, 2008
      Stirring and beautifully crafted, this debut novel recounts how the repercussions of a girl’s disappearance can last for decades. In 1984, Kate Meaney is a 10-year-old loner who solves imaginary mysteries and guesses the dark secrets of the shoppers she observes at the Green Oaks mall. Kate’s unlikely circle includes her always-present stuffed monkey; 22-year-old Adrian, who works at the candy shop next door; and Kate’s classmate, Teresa Stanton, who hides her intelligence behind disruptive behavior. Kate’s grandmother has plans for Kate: send her to boarding school. But Kate doesn’t want to go. Fast forward to 2003, where it’s revealed through Lisa, Adrian’s sister, that Kate disappeared nearly 20 years ago, and Adrian, blamed in her disappearance, also vanished. Lisa works at a record store in Green Oaks and is drawn to Kurt, a security guard whose surveillance-camera sightings of a little girl clutching a stuffed monkey hint that he might have ties to Kate’s disappearance. Teresa, meanwhile, now a detective, has her own reasons for being haunted by Kate’s disappearance. Gripping to the end, the book is both a chilling mystery and a poignant examination of the effects of loss and loneliness.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from September 15, 2008
      O'Flynn's debut novel begins with deceptive lightness as a junior detective operates within her own preadolescent world of intrigue, but the author smoothly reconfigures numerous old disappearances into a solid mystery. The story uses place as effectively as character, with a megamall serving as the backdrop for searches past and present. Narrator Catherine Skinner (Beginner's Greek) moves easily through time and between genders, making this short mystery both haunting and realistic. Highly recommended for mystery audiences. [Discs indexed inaudibly at the start of each chapter and at regular intervals throughout; audio clip available through www.bbcaudiobooksamerica.comJoyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo

      Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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