The Case of the Lighthouse Intruder

Kereen Getten's The Case of the Lighthouse Intruder is a sparky island mystery for 9 year olds about a girl who has always wanted a real case to solve.

What happens

Fayson spends a lot of time pretending. In her head she's a top FBI agent, busy saving the world. In real life she lives with her mama in a small flat in Jamaica. Mama is a nurse who works such long shifts that some days Fayson doesn't see her at all.

So when her rich twin cousins invite her to their holiday house for half term, she's suspicious. These are the boys who used to throw spiders in her hair! And the house is on Lighthouse Island, which they say is spooky.

In the end she goes. The house is enormous, with a pool, a sea view and a bathroom all of her own. But it's hard to relax when Uncle Edmond keeps correcting the way she talks.

Then the twins cover her eyes and march her to a hut at the bottom of the garden. It's the headquarters of the Greatest Gang of All Time. (Fayson points out straight away that the name doesn't actually work.) They've got a mystery none of them can solve, and it only happens after dark.

The gang is a big part of the fun. There's Tia, the leader, who makes sure everybody knows it. There's Gaby, who's kind and a bit clumsy, and Ace, and the twins, who don't seem quite as awful as Fayson remembered. They'd all rather be eating patties than waiting around in the hut. So Fayson, who has read every detective book going, starts to get things moving.

Fayson tells the story herself, and she's funny and sharp. You also really feel how out of place she is, and how much she misses her mum. There's some Jamaican Patois in the dialogue too, which gives it a lovely warm sound when you read it aloud.

This is the first Di Island Crew Investigates book, so it's a great place to start. If you've got a reader who loves clues, secret clubs and a heroine who takes her detective work very seriously, this one's for them.

What to read next

Want to stay in Jamaica a little longer? Kereen Getten's When Life Gives You Mangoes is set in a village there, where the girl telling the story can't remember what happened last summer and a mysterious new girl is on her way up the hill.