My review for Smart By Kim Slater

An exciting murder mystery story about an artistic, clever and observant young lad in Nottingham.


When Jeans friend Colin , a homeless man , was found dead in a river the police thought that he was drunk and had fallen in.Kieran believes he had been murdered.It's up to Kieran to find out what  happened.

Kieran is a master of observation ,a good drawer and wants to work for Sky news when he is older.He likes to watch TV  programmes such as CSI.
Kieran's dad died when he was younger and his step dad Tony is mean to him.(as well as being a drug dealer!) At home some suspicious stuff is going on too.A new boy in school called Karwana from Uganda becomes friends with Kieran and helps him solve the mysteries.This book is about finding out what happened to Colin and other local criminal activity.

I recognised a lot of the places mentioned as i live in Nottinghamshire too e.g the river Trent, Sherwood forest,lace making etc.It also mentions the artist Lowry a lot as Kieran likes his drawings.This book is a deceptive type of book.I got the hardback book and really liked the illustrations on the dust cover and on the inside of the book. This made me think it was going to be more cheerful than it was.
 The author described the characters and the area very well. I think this book would appeal to older children in their teens because it was serious, about murder,misery and violence to do with drug dealing.

I would rate this book 6/10 

It wasn't really 'my cup of tea' but it was good to read.

 This is my review for lovereading4kids.co.uk