He didn’t see her; but he heard her voice.

Sometimes a good book comes completely out of nowhere, you pick up a random book in a store and it turns out to be an absolute corker! This was my experience with Tim Bowler’s Starseeker. I had heard good things about his books, but nothing beyond that, and I had never read one. So when I picked this one up for sale in my local Oxfam, I had no pre-conceptions about its contents.

I’m so glad I did, because what I found was a wonderfully compelling tale of loyalty, moral, mystery and discovery, and one which was filled with engaging and interesting characters

Our main character is fourteen year old, Luke, who despite you wanting to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him in the early parts of the story, you can not help but like. At the time of the story Luke’s father had been dead for two years, and he feels his mother (with her new partner) is moving on too quickly. A change in his priorities has seen him fall in with the wrong crowd, and the nice boy he used to be, is becoming a distant memory.

Never fully accepted by his new friends, he is offered a chance to become, ‘a part of the gang.’ This involves him using his climbing ability (this ability also becomes important later on) to break into an old ladies house, whilst she is out.

What he discovers inside, starts Luke on a journey he least expected. He becomes drawn into finding out just who the crying girl he finds is, and why she is so unhappy. Finding those answers changes the lives of all those around him.

Not least of which his own, through his music, the peace he finds in the tree house (which is where he learned to climb so well) his father built, and his helping of the little girl, Luke begins to find himself again.

While it is not quite the best book I’ve read this year as sometime the fantastical elements don’t always gel with the realism and mystery ones. It is going down as one of my favourites, partly because of the sense of magic you feel whilst reading the book and partly because as I said at the start, I entered the book with no pre-conceived ideas about the story or its author, and then ended up liking it  so much.

It is a book that brings out sympathy and hope in the reader and a lovely feel-good read.

Rating:

Buy, Starseeker, from Amazon.