Esmie knows she wants to be a detective when she grows up - just like her dad. And now is the perfect time to start honing her investigative skills. First of all there's the mystery disappearance of Esmie's brother's girlfriend's mum (interestingly complicated!). Could she still be alive? Or does a vital clue lie beneath the soil of the local allotment?

Even more importantly, Esmie is worried that her dad still hasn't proposed to his girlfriend, Lizzie. After all, Esmie went to enough trouble to act as match-maker for them! Then Esmie discovers that something very strange is going on - Lizzie is having a secret rendezvous with a mysterious man when she is supposed to be at work. What on earth is Lizzie's secret - and can Esmie find a way to make sure her new 'mum' and dad stay together forever?

There are 208 pages in this book. This book was published 2005 by Pan Macmillan .

Gwyneth Rees has written under different names for many best-selling children's series, but Mermaids is her first work for Macmillan. When she's not writing, Gwyneth is a psychiatrist in a London hospital. She lives in west London with two cats.