The London Eye Mystery

Kat Spark, Ted’s older sister, is a foil for Ted. Where Ted is introspective and peaceable, Kat is outgoing and often brash. Where Ted is interested in a quiet life, Kat is drawn to excitement like motorbike riding. Ted enjoys the intellectual experience of studiously reading, but Kat sometimes ditches school and prioritizes physical experiences like smoking cigarettes. Ted doesn’t quite know what to make of her. Now and then, she’s kind to him, but mostly she treats him rudely.

Kat becomes very upset when Salim disappears. Struggling to figure out what happened to her cousin, she’s forced to seek ideas from Ted, whom she normally ignores or belittles. Her initial interactions with him are combative, but she begins to appreciate his intelligence and mind for logical deduction. Between her aggressive approach to searching for Salim and Ted’s quieter, more deliberate methods, the two make a strong team. Kat learns to appreciate Ted and support him patiently. She also works through conflict with her father, who resists Kat’s energetic approach to life, and they resolve their differences with renewed love and respect for each other.

Ted’s Aunt Gloria is “tall and thin with straight black hair, cut to her shoulders” (19), smokes cigarettes, and dresses stylishly but with loud accents like dark pink sandals and toenails. Gloria’s personality is enthusiastic and overwhelms Ted, who notes that “ever since Aunt Gloria had arrived in our house she’d hardly stopped talking or moving” (97). When Salim disappears, Gloria becomes physically ill, mentally distraught, and resolves to search for her son in the face of her feelings of helplessness. Gloria, as Salim’s mother, highlights the intensely emotional reactions that much of the family feels about his disappearance.

Tall and thin like his mother, Salim is 13 and has short black hair and brown skin. He’s smart and pensive, and he loves his parents, but he often struggles to deal with his mother’s eccentricity. He and Ted discover that, in many ways, they’re kindred spirits. Salim hates the idea of moving to New York, so he and his close friend Marcus devise a way for him to escape while riding the London Eye Ferris wheel. Salim finds that he likes Ted and Kat, and he doesn’t want to hurt them, much less his mother. Salim regrets his decision to run away, and his lengthy disappearance causes a major crisis for his extended family. Salim realizes that, despite his hesitation to move to New York, he loves his family and wishes to be reunited with them.

Ben and Faith Spark are Ted’s parents. Ben works as a demolition expert and Faith is a nurse. Ben reacts to the family’s tension with humor and kindness, while Faith’s stress regarding her sister’s turmoil strains her relationships with her children. Ben has been preparing a tall public-housing building to be torn down and serves as a source of stability for Ted at the beginning of the narrative. However, this dynamic devolves as Ben prioritizes Faith’s emotional wellbeing. Faith’s stress regarding Gloria and Kat prompts her to be dismissive of Ted, and she seems unaware of his difficulties. When in conflict with Kat, Faith almost slaps her daughter, but comes to realize the extent of her distress before the situation escalates. While Ben and Faith are active parents, they are often wrapped up in the events around them and do not acknowledge Ted’s value in solving Salim’s disappearance until the novel’s end.

Detective Inspector Pearce oversees the police search for Salim and interviews Ted’s family and Aunt Gloria. Pearce is the only adult who listens to Ted and validates his viewpoints, which ultimately leads to the solution to Salim’s disappearance. She is a source of calm for Ted amid the whirlwind of fraught emotions in his family. Ted admires her and finds her helpful, reasonable, and reassuring.

Christy provides the London Eye ticket for Salim to begin his disappearing act, though he believes himself to have participated in a simple prank for his little brother, Marcus, at the time. Christy serves the story as one of the puzzles the kids must solve as they try to find their cousin; he’s an assumed antagonist who turns out to be only peripherally involved.

Marcus, Christy’s younger brother, is also a catalyst in the story. As Salim’s best friend who helps him run away so they can stay together as friends, Marcus is a motivating factor in Salim’s effort to escape his mother’s New York plans. Salim’s continued disappearance alarms Marcus, and he confesses his part in the scheme.