Olive Jones and the Memory Thief
Kate Gilby-Smith
Orion

Nobody could have been more surprised than twelve year old Olive Jones to discover on the day of her grandmother’s funeral, that she has inherited something from the old lady whom she hardly knew, despite living opposite her. Olive is convinced that with her keen interest in world events, her secretive fitness fanatic, Grandma Sylvie, has been hiding something from her family. ‘What you see is what you get’ her mother tells the girl, adding that such notions are a result of her daughter’s overactive imagination.

Then Olive learns that she has inherited her grandmother’s memories stored on a new technological device called a Memoriser. Imagine this though: having received the device and complied with the instructions on how to use it – lie down somewhere comfortable, place it on your head, close your eyes and clear your mind – before she knows it, the Memoriser stops and she realises that it’s been stolen. Surreal or what!

Now a mystery has opened up and who is there to solve it but Olive and her younger brother Frankie. Frankie is a chess champion, super smart and very trusting, in contrast to day-dreamer, quick to react Olive, who frequently finds herself in trouble. However it’s these complementary differences that are to prove very useful as they set about solving the case of Operation Shadow. The legendary Sylvie Jones has left the children four dossiers of potential moles within the British Intelligence Service and they have to complete her life’s work and clear her name.

Full of surprises, in the manner of a spy movie this page-turner unfolds at a terrific pace right from the start: we follow Olive and Frankie as they try to work our who can be trusted, get involved in chases and unearth secrets aplenty; and in so doing find out about the incredible life their grandmother led. Then comes the final surprise twist that brings them full circle. I suspect that like me, many readers will be unable to put this down until they’ve read the very last page.