The London Eye Mystery

Ted and his sister, Kat, watch as their cousin, Salim, boards a sealed pod on the London Eye. Thirty minutes later, the pod returns, but Salim has disappeared.
Ted has eight theories, but no one is listening. No one except, sometimes, his sister, Kat. Each of them is determined to unravel the mystery. Kat, out of guilt. Ted because his brain doesn't work like anyone else's--it runs "on its own unique operating system"--and he's curious to see if that allows him to piece together clues that no one else even sees.
Never named, the symptoms of Ted's syndrome suggest high-functioning autism, making this the second mystery I'm familiar with solved by an autistic boy (the first being "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark show more Haddon), but certainly not unique in literature for youth emphasizing the unique abilities and contributions of people with "differences."

Perhaps the greatest strength of the book is how well Dowd used the solving of the mystery and Ted's perspective on the world to develop each other. Rather than relying on exposition, Ted's thought process unravels the mystery and the unraveling of the mystery reveals Ted's character. One could argue that the real mystery exposed by the book is the inner world of an autistic person.

As seems to be a trend in more of the youth literature I've been reading this year, the mystery was simpler--within the realm of possibility for a brother and sister (thinker and doer, respectively) team to solve. But as the value of the book lies less in the mystery itself and more in the character of Ted, that's not particularly a detraction. show less

For the benefit of Americans: the London Eye isn’t an eye at all, but a Ferris wheel so enormous that riders can see 25 miles in all directions.

Londoners Ted and Kat Spark take their visiting 13-year-old cousin Salim to ride the London Eye; it is Salim who takes a free ticket to ride the attraction, but he never exits the London Eye when the ride is done!

Twelve-year-old Ted struggles with some of the more common effects of autism: He has an obsession (weather); when upset, he flaps his hands and goes “Hrumm”; he struggles with slang and idioms, which he takes literally; he has trouble with hugs, making eye contact and determining facial expressions; he paces when thinking or stressed. (My daughters with autism didn’t grunt or show more flap their hands, but they were beset with the other issues.) But Ted has an advantage over his older sister Kat, his parents, his Aunt Gloria (Salim’s mother) and even the police. As he says at the book’s beginning, “This is how having a funny brain that runs on a different operating system from other people’s helped me to figure out what had happened.”

Siobhan Dowd’s suspenseful middle-grade mystery will enthrall both its target audience and their parents; I couldn’t stop reading this riveting mystery! Fans of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time are in for a treat with another novel of a young man with autism and a drive to solve a mystery. Highly recommended. show less

What absolutely sold me on The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd was the voice of the main character, Ted, a twelve year old boy with probably Asperger’s Syndrome, although it is never defined as such. Ted just tells us that he has a different brain from other people. When Salim, a cousin comes to visit and disappears while riding the London Eye, it is up to Ted and his older sister, Kat to solve the mystery as they blame themselves for the disappearance. By developing theories that they step-by-step eliminate, along with Ted’s unusual way of looking at things, they are eventually able to put the pieces together. But even then, something is still not quite right, Salim is still missing and as the clock ticks down, Ted and Kat must show more once again put their heads together and figure this out.

This is a great YA mystery that I think would fully draw in kids between 10 and 12, but it is still an enjoyable read for any age. I think the author’s respect for both her target audience and the mystery genre itself shines through the pages, and she is able to deliver a fresh, dynamic story with a unique narrator. show less

Just perfect for me--engaging throughout with nary a misstep (normally even my favourite book has a chapter, character, or passage I could do without, but not this one--consistently good!), and moving to boot, tears in my eyes, as it hurried toward its conclusion.

I suppose for most people it's an unusual narrator (unless you've read the similar Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time or the like), but for me Ted's thinking is closer to my way of thinking than the other members of his family, and I could relate. (I'm not to his extent--my Mom insists, like Young Sheldon, I've been tested, I'm fine--but I know I can't read people and grew up lacking what everyone else called common sense and am exceedingly literal. I learned how to show more behave by reading and watching tv and film (terrible ways to learn) and eventual reconciled them with observed behaviour around me, so I can pass.)

Loved it.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve! show less

Siobhan Dowd si serve del punto di vista di un bambino con la sindrome di Asperger per imbastire un giallo per ragazzi divertente e intrigante, riuscendo a toccare temi delicati (il divorzio dei genitori, la solitudine, l'emarginazione) senza appesantire lo sviluppo della storia e soprattutto senza scadere nel patetico o nel moralistico.

Grazie anche a una scrittura brillante e ironica, a una sensibilità speciale e alla lente deformante dell'indimenticabile narratore, l'autrice consegna a giovani e adulti un libro che ha la statura di un classico moderno.

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Precedente: [b:La notte del drive-in 3|9697840|La notte del drive-in 3|Joe R. show more Lansdale|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1318837615l/9697840._SY75_.jpg|18554411]
Successivo: [b:La quarta dimensione: Se il nostro universo fosse l'ombra di un altro?|11449706|La quarta dimensione Se il nostro universo fosse l'ombra di un altro?|Raúl Ibáñez Torres|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1306267845l/11449706._SY75_.jpg|14674691] show less

I really liked this book. Its main character is a boy named Ted, who is diagnosed as having high-functioning autism, the sort that used to be called Asperger's syndrome. He's very smart, or at least appears super-smart to other people because of how his brain processes information, but he's also a kid with a 'syndrome, which gives adults all the excuse they need to disregard his input when his cousin disappears. The cousin, Salim, goes into one of the pods of the London Eye, and never comes out when the pod returns to the ground, but of course the only witnesses to this feat are Ted and his slightly older sister. The adults all assume the kids don't really know what they witnessed, or that they got distracted and in any case are show more unreliable witnesses. But, once he sets his mind to solving a puzzle, Ted is not going to rest content without solving it, so he and his sister start investigating on their own.
As someone 'on the spectrum' myself, I always appreciate books with strong autism-spectrum characters, and I like how the author in this book stresses how Ted's mind isn't diseased, or in need of fixing; rather he has a brain that uses a 'different operating system' and has different skills and strengths compared to other people. The story also shows a bit of the trade-off involved in diagnosing kids with such 'disorders'. Ted is constantly being ignored or misunderstood because his own parents and almost all the other adults can use his syndrome as an easy excuse to dismiss Ted whenever it suits them. Even those people in his life who he usually can rely on to take him seriously use his spectrum diagnosis to brush him off when they don't want to hear what he has to say about Salim's disappearance. I am sure many people 'on the spectrum' have experience scenes like this.
Autism aside, this is a well structured mystery with a happy ending, written so that middle-school readers could understand it, but so that adults of all ages can also enjoy the story. show less

Here's a wonderful variation on the locked-room mystery: how can a boy seen to enter a pod on the famous London Eye wheel disappear when the pod docks again half an hour later? Salim's cousins, Ted and Kat, are left baffled, as are his estranged parents and Ted and Kat's parents, not to mention the police. But by coming up with hypotheses for that disappearance and evaluating them, and by some clever underhand sleuthing, Ted and Kat slowly inch towards a solution; the worry is that, as time goes on, finding him will come too late to save him.

On the surface this sounds like a run-of-the-mill adventure story where children prove more than the equals of the police in solving a mystery. But The London Eye Mystery is not your average show more juvenile crime novel: there is a grounding in reality, in the hopes and fears of family life, in the recklessness that sometimes typifies adolescence, and in aspects of the mental processes someone on the autism spectrum may go through.

Ted Spark has what used to be called Asperger Syndrome, sometimes referred to as high functioning autism, but the boundaries are blurred and the terms even disputed (Asperger's is no longer an official designation in psychiatry), while those on the spectrum are often apt not to see it as a disorder but typically call themselves neurodiverse. However we view Ted, he displays many traits of those on the autism spectrum, from difficulties with social interaction, anxiety (often manifesting as repetitive behaviours, or stimming), sensory overload (from distracting noises and activities) and so-called 'special interests' (in Ted's case, climatology).

His obsession with patterns and logical thinking earns him the respect of Detective Inspector Pierce when he starts to join the dots, though he has a hard time persuading his family of his suspicions and conclusions. Aided and abetted by his older sister, Kat -- though she is not without her doubts as to his reasoning -- he works out what happened at the London Eye and why, and then what happened next. The famous (though often misquoted) dictum of Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of Four -- "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" -- is ever Ted's principle, and luckily Kat is prepared to race across the capital to chase up Ted's insights.

This is a lovely novel with satisfying outcomes. Despite overtones of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple in the meme of the amateur arriving at the solution, this is as much an exploration of family dynamics and individuals within them as it is a classical mystery. Robin Stevens' introduction for this edition gives us the background to the novel, published in the year of the author's premature death from cancer; all the royalties from The London Eye Mystery go to the Siobhan Dowd Trust which helps bring books and the joy of reading to disadvantaged children, including those in care. show less