It’s terrific to see a children’s/YA book win the overall Costa Book of the Year – supporting my long-held view that some teenage literature is as good as, if not better than, most adult books. Often the craft of writing is simply better honed and more skilfully handled. So, what do I think of The Lie Tree? Well, I really enjoyed it,….. in the main. I found the opening chapters a little ‘over written’ but thankfully, further in, the writing simplified and gained rhythm, letting the story unfold as it should. And it unfolds well. I won’t spoil it by giving anything away – simply that there’s originality and depth to the characters as the protagonist, Faith, sets about solving her father’s murder. The sense of a woman’s role in Victorian England and attitudes etc., contrast well with a period in which creationists and evolutionists were at loggerheads. Well worth reading.