Lori, who is ten, has lived with her lively, unusual Nan after the death of her parents when she was a baby. Max lives with her parents, but her dad is a gambling addict, and her mum suffers from depression. The two girls meet at school when Max arrives in Lori’s class in the middle of term. Max wears clothes too small for her and none too clean as well, and her hair looks like a bird’s nest. The fact that she is black is not mentioned in the book, but the front cover clearly shows that she is. Her classmates find her very difficult and believe that she has been expelled from a former school. When Lori begins to get to know Max, she discovers all about Max’s background, that her dad is a confirmed gambler, who will sell off anything in order to get money and is often involved with very shady characters; because of this, the family often must do a runner, which explains Max’s many different schools. She is defiant and quick to stand up to bullies, but she is also reticent and difficult to know. Because of her depression, Max’s mum is on heavy medication, which means she’s often ‘out of it’ and unable to look after Max properly. Lori, who desperately wants to be a detective when she grows up, has the perfect mystery presented to her when someone steals the charity money from her class, and Max disappears. By this time, Lori knows Max well enough to be positive that she would never do such a thing, but has great trouble convincing anyone else. The adventures get very exciting after this and there is real danger to both girls when the gambling syndicate gets involved. The details about both girls’ home lives is often grim in Max’s case, even though both her parents do love her in their own ways. Lori and her Nan are a wonderful pair, who love each other dearly, and the two girls family relationships couldn’t be more different. The two children come alive and their friendship grows through all the troubles and frustrations that follow. This is a meaty, often humorous and thought-provoking novel. Most enjoyable, and there is another novel about Max and Lori to follow ‘Lori and Max and the Book Thieves’.