The proof copy I read of this novel is packaged in a cover stating "If you only read one book in 2025, make it this one". With a recommendation that high, it had better be good, right? Fortunately, it is. It's a debut novel, by a Wellington-based writer, set over one summer on the Kapiti Coast, and is a classic coming-of-age story, in which the reader comes to understand events in a way that the 10-year-old narrator doesn't. This is a tricky technique to pull off, but this is never less than convincing, and the pages flow by effortlessly. There is mystery, intrigue, shocking discoveries, nostalgia, humour, and the tension of a child in peril. It's a brilliant thriller, kind of in the vein of Charity Norman, or a Kiwi Jodi Picoult. It deserves to be an international success.