Himalayan Hostages
Thank you so much for coming to speak to us all. The students were enthralled, as was I! I have been reading your book with my own class and I was delighted by their gasps and giggles
Penny
Himalayan Hideout
Another great adventure story! I love how the author feeds us enticing descriptions of Himalayan culture and wildlife all while keeping us on the edge of our seats with the exciting plot. This was hugely enjoyable.
Audible listener
Himalayan Kidnap
Himalayan kidnap is about teenage brothers, Alex and James, who are on a hazardous journey taking a package to their parents in Nepal. They later find out this package contains a ransom to free their parents from the Maoists, a group that opposes the Nepalese government. The book is gripping and the descriptions of the jungle and the wildlife they encounter make you feel that you are there too. On their way, they meet many people some of whom are helpful but they are unsure who they can trust. After avoiding various wild animals, they fall down an unclimbable hole and end up in a vast cave system. Will the squabbling siblings escape?
I thought that the book was extremely good, well-structured and fast moving. I enjoyed reading it so much that I found it hard to put down. I would recommend it for anyone who likes adventure books that don’t drag on, especially if they like wildlife too. It would be good to read to younger children and there are some excellent illustrations as well. I can’t wait to find out what happens next.
Deri C-H, aged 13
Himalayan Heist
This is an adventure story for adults and young adults. It is a breathlessly exciting page-turner, in the long tradition of quest stories.
The complex and shifting relationships of the three main protagonists – Alex and James, and their engaging girl companion Bim – are put to the test as they work their way through the beautiful and dangerous Nepalese landscape. They know what they have to do, but not what they will be required to face. Perils confront them at every turn, some natural, others man-made. The Nepalese landscape – presented in vivid and almost tactile clarity – can be beautiful, but also menacing.
In many adventure stories the characters are the main interest and the setting is little more than a lifeless backcloth; or the landscape is the writer’s real subject and the protagonists are anaemic stereotypes whose only purpose is to move the story forward. But here the characterisation is enmeshed within the action and the setting. Without noticing, readers find themselves caring about the characters, anxious when they are separated, comforted when they are reunited.
The author is a traveller. She writes about places and people she knows well, so there is an integrity in her writing and a total authenticity in the heft and feel of the story. So her accounts of the wildlife, the valleys and mountains and rivers, and the people the three main characters come across, have truth in them.
Victor Watson, editor of The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English