Smart: A mysterious crime, a different detective

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Shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Federation of Children's Book Groups Prize and longlisted for the 2015 Carnegie Medal, Kim Slater's outstanding debut, Smart, is moving and compelling novel with a loveable character at its heart. I grew up in the great coal-mining region of North Nottinghamshire in the days when life revolved around the ‘pit.’ Many people lived close to the mine, worked down the mine and socialised on Friday and Saturday nights at the Miners’ Welfares that were dotted around the towns and villages. I was surrounded by hard-working people who’d enjoy a well-deserved drink or two while dancing their troubles away… and often great storytellers who’d keep each other engaged and entertained with tense tales that relayed the drama of their week. What an immersive education for an aspiring writer! Kieran is a unique young man; he is a devout student of criminal investigation from the many fictional detectives about whom he has read and considers himself a master of observation. It is not, however, until Kieran happens upon the body of a homeless man that Kieran's skills are put to practice.

Kieran’s narration is heartbreakingly clear; we see what he sees and experience what he experiences, and at times his story is almost excruciatingly poignant as he struggles to make sense of the clues that the adults in the story simply don’t see. But at no time does this turn into a cutesy tale of a young amateur sleuth. The writing is always razor-sharp with no wasted words or unnecessary exposition, and the title is very well-chosen. As strange as it may sound, kim takes her literary inspiration from everyday life. In fact her debut novel dubbed smart serves to bring a completely brilliant and unique voice into the world of children’s educative books. The cover was the first thing that caught my attention and as I read the blurb I realised that this was the kind of book I’ve always had a soft spot for and a book that I couldn’t wait to read. The lovely Jessica from Pan sent a copy my way and I started reading as soon as I had it in my hands! Kieran is a really wonderful character with a very strong voice. His autism is well-handled and his difficult home life is compelling to read about – I was desperately hoping for Tony and Ryan to get their comeuppance. It’s also got a massively strong ending which rounds things off perfectly for this storyline. Supporting characters are excellent, too - Tony and Ryan are vile but believably so, I felt massively sorry for Kieran's mum who's trapped in a terrible relationship, and there are sympathetic portrayals of homeless people, especially Kieran's friend Jean. The crime aspect was less to my tastes, if I’m honest. Compared to other recent strong mysteries like The Glass Bird Girl by Esme Kerr and Murder Most Unladylike (Wells & Wong Mystery 1) by Robin Stevens, it didn't feel like enough of a puzzle to me – I think it works far better as a character-driven book than a detective story, despite the tagline A mysterious crime. A different detective being what originally drew me to the novel. I was expecting to have more of a mystery to work out for myself and didn't think I got that.

Kieran is very definitely smart and so is this clever, moving, and at times uplifting, book. You’ll be there every step of the way with this always in-character young narrator, willing him to succeed and desperately hoping that there’ll be a way out for him from a horrible home life. Smart is invariably going to attract comparisons with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, so let’s get that out of the way now and move on. Yes, there’s a young narrator with some unspecified form of Asperger’s or autism, but Kim Slater’s first novel stands on its own two feet and will make a huge impact on anyone who reads it, be they the younger end of the teen market the book is aimed at, or an adult audience. The solution to the mystery comes all of a sudden but it's the other plots coming together that works well, and I hope this leads young readers to appreciate that everyone has their strengths as well as problems and deserves to be taken seriously. I would say slightly younger readers could access this, maybe 12+. Kieran is about that age. His mother has moved in with Tony, unemployed and violent, and Tony's lazy teenage son Ryan, happy to follow his father's example and bully Kieran. The book begins when Kieran and his homeless friend Jean discover the drowned body of another homeless man, Colin. The police aren't very interested so Kieran decides he will investigate. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the CSI TV programme, and an uncanny ability to draw and paint, so draws Jean's description of the last man she saw with Colin. The pacing of this book was fabulous and the plot wasn’t immediately predictable which is brilliant for a children’s book! Normally I can predict them before I have started reading. I did start to draw parallels between this book and others along similar lines such as The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-time and Wonder – books where the protagonist doesn’t fit in and becomes a star in their own right. I like the message that these types of books send out.

Kieran notices things that other people don’t and when he finds the body of a homeless man in the river, he expects the police to take more of an interest in the case, as Kieran believes the man has been murdered. But everyone else seems intent on writing off the death as nothing more than a tragic accident that happened because the man had fallen in the water, too drunk to save himself. Summary: Very strong characters make this one well worth reading, despite the mystery aspect not being quite as satisfying as I hoped for. Kim Slater is an author to watch out for!It’s not easy being Kieran Wood, age unspecified but in Year 9 at school. He knows he’s different to other kids. They laugh at him and call him names, but he has his own coping strategies and is very good at putting them into effect. He has a book he writes things down in, and he keeps his precious notebook hidden inside a Beano album, away from the prying eyes of his stepbrother.