James O’Loghlin, Daisy Malone and the Blue Glowing Stone, Pan Macmillan, 1 April 2015, 324 pp., $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781743533024
Daisy has just turned 12, has a talking dog called Ben, a very frightened father who is scared of everything and an archaeologist mother who hasn’t called to say happy birthday when she always has before. Not only that, there are two strangers called Dennis and Sinclair who seem to want something that is inside her house and break in to find it. Daisy manages to cleverly fend off the strangers but finds a glowing blue stone she thinks may be the object of the strangers’ attention. With her trusty dog by her side, Daisy and Ben set out to uncover the mystery of the blue stone and discover if it has anything to do with her missing mother. This leads them onto a treacherous adventure of greed, archaeology and some very, very mysterious characters from very, very far away.
This book is funny and at times very witty, with Daisy and Ben making a great comic duo, but it did take a long time to get to the end, with almost too many twists and turns.
reviewed by Deborah Abela