I am excited to share an extract today for the 10 year anniversary ~ thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for organizing.
Genre ~ Middle Grade Children’s detective story (ages 9-12)
Series ~ Eye Spy #1
Publication date ~ June 17, 2014
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Extract:
This extract introduces Alex and Donna’s dad, and his latest invention.
We both jumped. We’d been so busy arguing that we hadn’t heard him opening the door between the workshop and the den. Dad looked exhausted. His chin was sprouting stubble and his hair was standing up on end as if he’d been endlessly running his fingers through it, but his eyes were blazing with excitement.
“What is it, Dad?” said Donna.
He grinned at us. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet. Alex, Donna, this is Hamish…”
As Dad stepped back from the doorway we could see he was holding something like a TV remote control. There was a faint whirring noise, and a strange object started moving along the workroom floor towards us. It had a small domed body and six jointed metal legs. Two camera lenses took the place of eyes, and between the lenses were wiggly rubber arms with little pads on the ends like an insect’s antenna. It looked just like a mechanical tarantula.
Dad had built a robot!
At first we were both so stunned we couldn’t speak. Then Donna said, “Wow! He’s so cute!”
Dad looked disgusted. “For goodness’s sake, girl, he’s not a toy! He’s a sophisticated search and rescue device. We’re talking cutting-edge technology here!”
Donna looked sheepish. “Sorry, Dad, I didn’t realise.”
I wanted to know how the robot worked. “Why does he need antennae when he has camera lenses to see with?”
“Normally Hamish finds his way by touch using the antennae, which have sensors at their tips. However, the lenses can give advance warning of obstructions. They have infra-red thermal vision so they can see in the dark and through smoke. Look… I’ll show you.”
Dad drew us into his workroom and shut the door. He turned Hamish round so he was facing a large box that was standing in the middle of the floor. Then he switched off the lights. Apart from a faint red glow from the stove that heated the workroom, we were in total darkness.
We heard Dad tapping some buttons on the control and Hamish started
to move forward again. Then the sounds of movement stopped and there was a loud BLEEP!
“Hear that? That’s his way of saying that there’s something blocking his path.” He switched the light on again. Hamish had stopped half a metre from the box.
“Why didn’t he go up to the box and touch it with his sensors?” Donna asked.
“I’ve programmed him to think any obstructions could be dangerous, so he stops before he reaches them.”
“How long have you been working on Hamish?” I asked. We’d had no idea he was working on anything major, although considering how much time he’d spent in the workshop recently, we really should have guessed.
Dad sat back in his computer chair and folded his arms. “About two years, I suppose, although I got the idea when I was working on that robotic lawnmower some time ago.”
I remembered the robotic lawn mower. It kept going out of control and careering across the lawn at sixty miles an hour like some weapon of mass destruction. “Never mind, Dad,” Donna had said. “It’ll make a great bird scarer.” Dad had moped about the house for ages afterwards, depressed that yet another idea had gone wrong. Now it looked like he’d turned his failure into something positive after all.
Dad started to talk about all the situations where Hamish could be really useful. “He can go into places that would be dangerous for humans because of radiation or landmines. He can climb stairs and get into confined spaces, so he can help find people in collapsed buildings. There are so many applications. And this is just Mark 1. I’m hoping Mark 2 will be able to think for himself, at least in some instances.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Our dad, creating artificial intelligence? Maybe he was a genius after all.
There were so many more things I wanted to know. What sort of company would be interested in a robot like Hamish? How long would it take to give him some form of intelligence? Would he make Dad a lot of money? But before I could ask any more questions, Dad turned to us with a really serious look on his face and said, “Right, you two, I need your promise that you won’t talk about what you’ve seen to anyone outside the family, not even your best friends.”
“Cross my heart and hope to die,” said Donna promptly. Why does she
always have to be so dramatic?
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Alex?”
“I swear.”
“Thank you. Now, I think Hamish deserves a rest, and so do I. A meal, a bath, and bed, in that order. I’m knackered.”
Dad put Hamish away carefully in a box under the workbench, then he ushered us out of the workshop and locked up for the night. As we followed him up the long winding path to the back door, I remembered all the times we’d been teased by the kids at Lea Green for having such a loopy dad. They think that because he’s weird, we must be too. If just one of Dad’s inventions could be a success, maybe people wouldn’t laugh at him anymore, or make fun of us when we stuck up for him. Then I thought about Em’s predictions. I didn’t really believe you could foretell the future, but suppose she was right? I was so busy imagining a bright future for us that I forgot all about her warning of danger to come…
Book blurb:
Over the course of ten days, the lives of thirteen-year-old Alex Macintyre and his twin sister Donna will change forever.
When Alex and Donna set up Eye Spy Investigations and start looking for a valuable missing dog, they soon have an interesting assortment of suspects. There is the mysterious man in the fur hat; a gang of bikers who hang out at the Starship Café; and Crazy Kath, the bag lady, who may know more than she’s letting on.
But as they struggle to make sense of the evidence, the twins begin to uncover an even bigger mystery in their own family. As events spiral out of control, can Alex resolve a family crisis, save Donna from imminent danger, and return the missing dog to its rightful owner?
Purchase Links
https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/young-children/eye-spy
Author Bio:
Tessa Buckley was an inveterate scribbler as a child, and spent much of her time writing and illustrating stories. After spending fifteen years working for architects and interior designers. She took up writing again when her young daughter complained that she couldn’t find enough adventure stories to read. This led, in 2014, to the publication of Eye Spy, the first in a series of detective stories for 9-12 year olds, designed to encourage reluctant readers. The second book in the series, Haunted, was a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2017. She lives with her husband and a large white cat called Pippa in a town on the Thames estuary, which inspired the seaside setting for the novels. She also writes about family history, which has been her passion for many years.
Website: https://tessabuckleyauthor.com
Social Media Links –
https://www.facebook.com/Tessa-Buckley-Author-101751741568714
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