When death came to Roo Thorn’s door, it found her dreaming.

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From the opening line of Finding Wonder, you are plunged into a world of mystery and intrigue. Eleven-year-old Roo is orphaned in the opening chapter, has been placed in the care of her alternative-lifestyle loving Aunt Joni by chapter two and has found her late father’s winning lottery ticket not long after Joni’s camper van explodes leaving them homeless on a bitterly cold night! Roo’s new found wealth enables her to pursue her dream of owning her own horse, and when she finds out that her idol, teenage show jumper Rhianna Cooper’s horse Wonder Boy is for sale, she knows where she wants to spend some of her winnings. However, the day after she visits the immaculate Starwood Farm home of Rhianna and her showjumping team, Wonder Boy is stolen and has apparently vanished without a trace.

Roo and Joni switch from being suspects in the crime, to becoming amateur detectives and find themselves caught up in a web of intricately staged horse thefts, each time the target of the sophisticated bandits is an immensely valuable specimen in its particular field. They team up with teenage horse trainer Skylar, who herself was under suspicion for the first theft simply by virtue of being part of the traveller community, and criss-cross the country in a new, customised camper van named Bluebird on the trail of the thieves. This middle grade crime novel canters at a pace which leaves the reader breathless!

I have always been a fan of detective fiction, whodunnits and locked room mysteries. What I love about Lauren St John’s mystery stories is that she doesn’t confine the crime to a locked room setting but incorporates her palpable love of the natural world into the story. So although the horses vanish from well-protected settings such as stables and film sets, you will find descriptions of nature and landscape, brimming with awe and wonder, within this book. What is more, her depiction of the natural world on the page pulsates with such vitality that you feel the bite of frost in your finger tips, or the damp disappearance of the horizon in a sudden fog, or the gentle splash of the waves on a tranquil beach. There is also a real sense of tension building through the narrative and a call for acceptance and inclusion, and underlying the whole story a real insight into the deep bonds between horses and humans. I have to admit to having very little knowledge of horses, but let me assure you that this book is hugely enjoyable even if, like me, you don’t know your Akhal-Teke from your American Quarter horse.

If you happen to know a child of 9 years and above who loves any combination of adventure, nature, animal, horse or mystery stories, then I strongly encourage you to buy (or borrow from your local library) a copy of Finding Wonder for them – they will certainly find wonder within the covers. If you are a school or public librarian, add this to your collection, it will be very popular. Before I end the review, I must mention not only the beautiful cover art by Levi Penfold, but also the exquisite black and white drawings of each of the horse characters inside by Marie-Alice Harel.

This book was my own purchase. I was extremely fortunate that Lauren St John visited my local Waterstone’s so that I was able to meet an author of whom I have been a fan for many years and buy a signed copy of Wonder Boy.