The London Eye Mystery: Chapters 1–10

by Siobhan Dowd
Ted and Kat watch their cousin Salim board the London Eye, a famous Ferris wheel. When the ride ends, Salim is nowhere to be found — but Ted and Kat are determined to solve the mystery.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–10, Chapters 11–19, Chapters 20–30, Chapters 31–41
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. queue
    a line of people or vehicles waiting for something
    You are sealed into one of the thirty-two capsules with the strangers who were next to you in the queue, and when they close the doors, the sound of the city is cut off.
  2. abacus
    a manual calculator with counters on rods or in grooves
    From the top of the ride, Kat says London looks like toy-town and the cars on the roads below look like abacus beads going left and right and stopping and starting.
  3. souvenir
    something of sentimental value
    We saw the people bunch up as the capsule came back down, facing northeast towards the automatic camera for the souvenir photograph.
  4. vanish
    get lost, as without warning or explanation
    Somewhere, somehow, in the thirty minutes of riding the Eye, in his sealed capsule, he had vanished off the face of the earth.
  5. forecast
    a prediction about how something will develop
    I was on Shreddie number three, and the radio weather forecast was saying it was set fair but with a risk of showers in the southeast.
  6. revenge
    action taken in return for an injury or offense
    And you’re so angry that society is treating you like this that you take drugs and shoplift and form gangs in revenge.
  7. edible
    suitable for use as food
    I saw her holding it to her nose and sniffing it, as if it was edible.
  8. devastate
    cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
    Or Hurricane Katrina, a category-five storm which devastated New Orleans in 2005.
  9. coincidence
    an accidental event that seems to have been arranged
    (I am sure it is no coincidence that one of the most catastrophic storms of all time has the same name as my sister.)
  10. hoard
    save up as for future use
    I tried to find it so I could quote it word for word but Mum said it had probably been thrown out because our house is too small to hoard things.
  11. curator
    the custodian of a collection, as a museum or library
    Salim and I are about to move to New York City, where I have been offered a job as an art curator.
  12. elaborate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
    Aunt Gloria, she says, writes with much more elaborate words.
  13. hectic
    marked by intense activity or agitation
    Life has been horribly hectic and the years have flown by like so many swallows in the sky.
  14. fascinating
    capable of arousing and holding the attention
    So it’s the Big Apple for us, a big exciting adventure in our fascinating voyage through life.
  15. abolish
    do away with
    It was like the time I’d asked why footballers were still being kept as slaves when slavery had been abolished, after a newsreader announced that a Manchester United star had been bought by another club for twelve million pounds.
  16. entitled
    qualified for by right according to law
    Mum said Kat would just have to lump it and it served her right for having skived off school, because a girl who skives isn’t entitled to make a fuss about sleeping on the couch for a night or two.
  17. meditate
    reflect deeply on a subject
    I’ll just take a deep breath every time she says something annoying and in my mind’s eye I’ll meditate on the shape of a teapot.
  18. tsunami
    a cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave
    I tried meditating on a teapot in my mind’s eye but all I saw was hot water spilling from the spout and coming straight at me like a scalding hot tsunami wave.
  19. hilarity
    great merriment
    Everyone laughed their heads off, which is not what literally happened but I like the idea of laughing heads becoming detached from bodies through extreme hilarity, so it is a good way to describe things.
  20. nicotine
    an alkaloid poison that occurs in tobacco
    Trouble is, Ted, I’m totally hooked on nicotine and can take or leave bread.
  21. writhe
    move in a twisting or contorted motion
    Salim doubled over with groans and writhed like he had been poisoned.
  22. global
    involving the entire earth
    Which meant I could talk about anticyclones and minor depressions but not major storm systems or global warming.
  23. skewed
    having an oblique or slanting direction or position
    I’d also once heard a doctor say to Mum that my developmental path was skewed.
  24. sieve
    a strainer for separating lumps from powdered material
    Mum says I have a brain like a sieve.
  25. impressed
    deeply or markedly affected or influenced
    The tower was silver and tall and I could see Salim was impressed with London because he looked at the tall buildings with his eyes wide open and his mouth open.
  26. silhouette
    an outline of a solid object as cast by its shadow
    He reached the spot where the pod doors opened and closed and his silhouette gave us a last wave.
  27. consignment
    the delivery of goods for sale or disposal
    In my mind’s eye, Aunt Gloria turned into a motorist with driving goggles and a huge consignment of bananas in the back seat.
  28. defy
    elude, especially in a baffling way
    He defied the law of gravity, Mum.
  29. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
    Mum frowned as if I’d said something stupid; then her face cleared (which is what you say when someone’s been looking unhappy and then they suddenly cheer up, and I like this phrase because it is another weather metaphor.
  30. decapitate
    cut the head off of
    It is a puzzling fact that chickens can run around in a frenzy for some seconds after being decapitated, but I do not think they do this for a whole hour.
  31. mobile
    moving or capable of moving readily
    So Aunt Gloria did a), that is, she pressed and repressed the redial button on her mobile phone.
  32. fetch
    go or come after and bring or take back
    Kat fetched a china plate and arranged some chocolate fingers on it.
  33. remorse
    a feeling of deep regret, usually for some misdeed
    People think he murdered the nanny who was looking after his children and then threw himself off a cliff in remorse.
  34. diagnose
    determine the nature of a problem or an illness
    Then my syndrome was diagnosed by the doctors.
  35. inherit
    obtain from someone after their death
    I was about to explain how the next of kin inherits the property of people who have died and how perhaps this also applies to the property of people who have disappeared, when the doorbell rang.
Created on Mon Nov 03 19:40:43 EST 2014 (updated Tue Sep 04 16:35:59 EDT 2018)

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