Secret Place

The children described on the cover of Lingard's novel as being 'far from home' are six-year-old Charlie and his eleven-year-old sister Maria. They live in Edinburgh with their Scottish mother, who for two years has been separated from their father, now a flamenco dancer in his native Spain. When one day he appears unexpectedly at the children's school and takes them away with him to his 'secret place', they - and the reader - become caught up in a story of conflicting claims, attachments and loyalties. Lingard writes a pleasantly readable story, essentially a variation on the adventure and chase genre, with the bonus of some attractive local colour in the Spanish scenes.