Eighteen-year-old Sue Bowl wants to be a writer. Her mother died three years earlier and she lives with her aunt Coral in a big house outside of London. To pay for the maintenance of the house, they take in lodgers while looking for the family treasure that was hidden a century before. While juggling boy problems, her father’s new family, dealing with the colourful characters who live in her house, and trying to get the internship at the local newspaper, Sue discovers a book about her family history that could reveal where the family treasure is hidden. The book is told from Sue’s point of view, through her journals and her letters, so the reader knows her feelings, her anxieties, her true character. Sue is funny, sometimes naive, but she has a great heart and cares deeply for the people around her. Following on from Campari for Breakfast, Martini Henry is the witty and moving story of a girl working hard for what she wants. A real page-turner, I hope there will be another adventure starring Sue Bowl! (NP)
Seventeen-year-old Sue's world has just been rocked by her mother's unexpected suicide. Since her father has found comfort in the arms of another woman, Sue decides to go and live with her Aunt Coral in the rundown Green Place estate. She dreams of being an author, and to
keep herself occupied she starts up a writing group along with the other eccentric inhabitants of Green Place. But at the back of her mind always is the possibility that her mother left a suicide note that has yet to be found.
I loved the characters in this book. Sue herself was very endearing, and Aunt Coral was also very likeable. They were all very well written, I felt as though I knew them by the end of novel. The book was in a journal format, with Sue's diary interspersed with Aunt Coral's Commonplace entries. I am not a fan of this format, as I feel it leads to a lot of unnecessary detail and drags out the plot. This was indeed this case here, and I felt the pace of the plot was
much too slow. Also, there were a lot of spelling mistakes, deliberate I assume as they are supposed to be errors on Sue's part when writing in her diary, but it really grated on me. There were some unexpected twists, and some amusing moments, but there wasn't enough action for me. (LO)
