Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
by Eoin Colfer (Puffin, 2005); audiobook read by Nathaniel Parker (AudioGO, 2011)
An engaging enough caper, albeit one in which the Fairy People take the lion’s share and Irish boy genius and criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl remains frustratingly just off centre stage. Colfer’s freewheeling plot, though clever, seems oddly neglectful of its titular character.