Fray

Fray has had a row with the Warden of the local Home, punched him in the face and absconded, because 'he was fed up with being treated like a thing that didn't matter, didn't think, didn't feel ...' Where to go? Well, Aunt Elsie had once given him a bag of sweets, when he was four ... Honest, that's what it says. The discovery of a murder victim and the boy's fear that the murderer will pursue and kill him, is a combination usually guaranteed to give a story some life. Here, unfortunately, it only leads into a meandering pretentiousness as though the young reader is being dropped pearls of fiction, to be polished not eaten.