The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

Mrs Creasy disappeared on a Monday. I know it was a Monday, because it was the day the dustbin men came, and the avenue was filled with a smell of scraped plates. England, the summer of 1976 and the heat is blazing and Mrs Creasy is missing. The avenue is alive with whispers, as the heat mingles with the swirling dust of rumours and long-buried secrets, bringing old resentments to the surface. For ten-year-old Grace and her best friend Tilly the mystery is a welcome distraction from the usual round of summer holiday boredom and as the summer shimmers endlessly on, they decide to take matters into their own hands. Yet as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find much more than they imagined... Joanna Cannon's wonderful new novel, Three Things About Elsie, is out now.