Knightley & Son

Meet Darkus, the latest in a line of boy detectives. He comes with excellent credentials. His father, Marcus Knightley, is a special investigator and Darkus has inherited his gifts. Unfortunately, Marcus has been in a coma for the past four years. All Darkus has are the records of past cases. Life is just going on – until his father suddenly wakes up. A spate of strange cases is making headlines, all apparently relating to a self-help bestseller, The Code. Is this somehow connected to The Combination – a secret organisation Marcus Knightley is convinced exists? Is he right? Darkus and Tilly find themselves catapulted into a headlong adventure.

Rohan Gavin is a screenwriter and this, his first novel, owes much to the world of film – especially the non-stop, tongue-in-cheek movies that are aimed at a family audience – Indiana Jones and most recently, Sherlock. This is particularly apparent in the style in which hyperbole is a standard , (‘locate’ rather than ‘look for’ or ‘find’), combined with brisk colloquial dialogue and repartee. This ensures that humour is very much an element of the whole; there is nothing serious here.  Action is high on the agenda, characterisation less important, the cast fitting neatly into the roles dictated by the genre in which adults, while active, play second-fiddle to the young protagonists. The plot – as is to be expected, -is suitably far-fetched, involving hypnotism, all kinds of chases and a lost book of power.  Aimed firmly at an audience who are steeped in Tintin and who have enjoyed the Diamond Brothers, this is a lively romp which will certainly please young readers at the top of KS2 moving into KS3.