The Dark Side of Midnight

This novel is written so determinedly to entertain that it almost seems churlish to find much of it contrived and unconvincing in return. A sub-James Bond story for kids of the type that Anthony Horowitz does so much better, it features special agent Assia Dawson and her 14-year-old daughter Jazmin. Assia’s latest assignment is to investigate some sinister cloning experiments going on in the Czech Republic, involving the body of a man from the distant past. Her daughter meanwhile goes to stay with her spoilt cousin in Hong Kong – cue for much bitter humour about pampered rich girls. Mid-Atlantic dialogue aims to be reader-friendly, with phrases like ‘kiss ass’ and ‘bum-flossing underwear’, whatever that might be, yet the overall effect is too strained and silly ever to be credible. Page 135 sees a reference to ‘Heidenberg’s Uncertainty Principle’, one of the more obvious mistakes in this generally misbegotten narrative from a writer whose previous novels suggest that she can do so much better.