Kentucky thriller - Lauren St. John

2-in-1 edition of the first two stories in the BLUE PETER AWARD-winning mystery adventure series about 11-year-old ace detective, Laura Marlin.

In KENTUCKY THRILLER, Laura is ecstatic when her uncle agrees to let her keep a horse after they rescue it from an overturned horsebox. But he has one condition - before he will allow her to adopt it they have to find its former owner, just to ensure that it hasn't been stolen. A visit to Newmarket to investigate the thoroughbred's origins leads Laura to the Kentucky Derby in the US and deep into the murky world of race-fixing.

And in RENDEZVOUS IN RUSSIA, Laura, Skye and Tariq are whirled into a breathtaking mystery adventure when they join the film crew on the set of THE ARISTOCRATIC THIEF about an art heist that could never be pulled off in real life. Or could it? Adventure and drama just seem to find Laura even when she's not looking for it.

Lauren St John grew up surrounded by horses, cats, dogs and a pet giraffe on a farm and game reserve in Zimbabwe, the inspiration for her bestselling White Giraffe and One Dollar Horse series, as well as her YA horse novel, The Glory. Dead Man's Cove, the first in her Laura Marlin Mystery series, won the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Before becoming a children's author, she worked as a journalist for The Sunday Times, writing about sports, music and spies. Along with her veterinary nursing training, it served as perfect research for her Kat Wolfe mystery series and The Snow Angel, a standalone MG novel.

A passionate conservationist, Lauren is an Ambassador for the Born Free Foundation, a patron for horse sanctuary, Mane Chance, and the founder of Authors4Oceans. When not rescuing leopards and dolphins, she is a full-time valet to her rescued, and not in the least demanding, Bengal cat, Max.

To find out more, visit her website at www.laurenstjohn.com

I strongly believe that this is a book everyone will love. It is full of adventure and mystery. It's one of those books that you really don't want to put down and you really have to force yourself to stop reading
THE GUARDIAN ONLINE

A charming novel
TEENAGE FICTION FOR ALL AGES