Why a Booktrail?
1993: Two girls find a body on Brighton Beach…
The Brighton Mermaid
What you need to know before your trail
Teenagers Nell and Jude find the body of a young woman and when no one comes to claim her, she becomes known as the Brighton Mermaid. Nell is still struggling to move on when, three weeks later, Jude disappears.
Twenty-five years on, Nell is forced to quit her job to find out who the Brighton Mermaid really was – and what happened to her best friend that summer.
But as Nell edges closer to the truth, dangerous things start to happen. Someone seems to be watching her every move, and soon she starts to wonder who in her life she can actually trust…
Locations
Reset- England - Sussex - Brighton
- A: Brighton promenade and pier
- B: Brighton Beach
- C: London Rd
- D: Brighton Marina
- E: Hove "Kings" Lawns
Travel Guide
Brighton
Dorothy Koomson’s Brighton is dark and eerie with supernatural overtones. When the body of a girl is found on the beach, her identity remains unknown and she remains unclaimed and so she is given the ominous name of the Brighton Mermaid.
The girls have just had a night on in one of the many beach front clubs. The one in the novel “Read My Lips’s luckily fictional. The city of Brighton and Hove provide a nice, sunny background to the dark and mysterious crimes in the book. It’s a place for the girls and teenagers to hang out and walk on after dark, it’s a place where you don’t expect to find a body. The theme of the mermaid alludes to the fairground feel of the city and its magical shows and theatres which provide entertainment to the visitors.
The Brighton Mermaid’s murder is not the only crime and mystery to solve – but this is no beach read – there are themes of racism, feminism and intricate family secrets amongst those dark grains of sand.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Brighton Mermaid
Destination : Brighton Author/Guide: Dorothy Koomson Departure Time: 1993
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