Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Another great review!

There's a wonderful review by Lee Finkelstein of The Case of the Diamond Shadow in November's issue of Reading Time, the journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia. Here's an extract:
'Sophie Masson has a captivating writing style. She is able to prolong the suspense while completely capturing the period and atmosphere of her story. The cover illustration immediately holds the reader's attention, promising a great yarn. Each scene is written with an eye to detail and a firm tongue in cheek. Subtle humour pervades the tale though it in no way impedes the momentum of the story. It's a great tale, full of action and an Agatha Christie style of intrigue, glamour and twisting plots that will keep the reader guessing right until the end. Highly reccomended for school and public libraries. "

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Madman of Venice trailer


On my You Tube channel, I've just put up a little trailer for my forthcoming novel for older readers, a historical mystery called The Madman of Venice. the book will be published by Hodder Children's Books UK in both Britain and Australia in April 2009, and in news just to hand, has also just sold to Random House USA!



You can read a bit more about the book at my googlepages site, http://sophievmasson.googlepages.com/ Click on 'Shakespearean series, vol 4.'

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Diamond Shadow event

On Wednesday, August 20, at 2pm, I'll be in my local Dymocks store in Armidale, NSW, to give a talk about how I wrote The Case of the Diamond Shadow, plus give readers a bit of a sneak preview of one of the clues in the second Daisy and George book I am planning--which at the moment I'm calling The Case of the Black House. More on that soon!
If you are in Armidale on that day, do call into Dymocks--the talk is open to all!

Some more good reviews!

Here's extracts from another couple of good reviews for The Case of the Diamond Shadow..
The first one is from The Reading Stack, http://www.thereadingstack.com/

'The Case of the Diamond Shadow is a wonderfully entertaining detective story with one of the best endings I have read for a long time. Not only is it exciting but the twists and turns will keep young readers guessing all the way!'

The second one is from the YARA site, on which young readers review books: (http://goldcreek.act.edu.au/yara) The review is by 12 year old Ronja, from Canberra:
'I found this book amazing! I couldn't stop reading it until I had finished it end from end! I would recommend it to detective lovers and those who enjoy reading mysteries.'

Hurrah!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

The first review!

The Case of the Diamond Shadow has just come out into the shops this week: and so has the first review. It's a beauty: Annette Dale-Meiklejohn's terrific review in the latest Magpies Magazine, July 2008.

Here's some of what she says:

'The Case of the Diamond Shadow can be read and enjoyed on many levels: there will be less sophisticated readers in upper primary who will enjoy it solely for the mystery and adventure elements while more sophisticated readers will also enjoy the sly humour of Woodley-Foxe's self-aggrandisement and the many references to popular culture of the second quarter of the twentieth century woven through the text. As an adult reader, I found the book most entertaining and very much enjoyed the 'aha!' moments as I connected characters and situations with people and events of the era. By the same token, it is also a well-written mystery that engages the reader in trying to work out just whodunit.'

Ain't that grand!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Advance copies!

I've now got my advance copies of The Case of the Diamond Shadow, and don't they look great! And in just over two weeks'time--on July 1--the books will be out in the shops. Wonderful!

Comic strip clues..


Included in The Case of the Diamond Shadow are some clues contained in comic strips. I decided to do these because I love comic strips and because these were also very common in popular magazines of the 1930's. The comic strips tell the beginning of the story of the adventures of Inspecteur Nocturne, crack detective from the Paris Surete(which is like the French version of Scotland Yard). I wrote the text, and my son teenage Bevis did the illustrations. They were heaps of fun to do!