Spy Girl: The Dark Side of Midnight

Jazmin Dawson’s mother is a spy. When she goes missing Jazmin is catapulted into her dream world – at the centre of an international mystery in the historical city of Prague with a real part to play.

The narrative cleverly blends the preoccupations of a teenage girl – weight loss, boyfriends, looks – with a sophisticated, materialistic future world of high technology and spiritual sterility. This environment provides the perfect breeding ground for those appearing to offer radical solutions – Jazmin’s vulnerable cousin becomes a prisoner of a cult religious sect and a scientist revives the centuries-dead Lucifer, Lord of Light, by means of his own scientific invention.

Jazmin finds her first love in a clown, Tonda, who makes her realise that physical appearance is irrelevant but a moral code is the basis of a meaningful friendship. Jazmin learns a great deal about herself, about the flaws in the world she inhabits – and about her mother’s high-powered, dangerous career. This is an action-packed page-turner with a heart which goes some way to breaking the male action man stereotypical mould.