Framed tells the story of a close-knit family within a close-knit community. The book is written in diary form and we read as this right net is ripped apart. This is Boyce’s second entry to the Carnegie and he will be hoping for a good result as his brilliant story Millions won last time round.

The reader is not catapulted into the story, more allowed to build a safety net of characterisation. The diary form allows a comfortable 'slip-in, slip-out' sort of read, while the eccentric car logging adds a sense of realism.

The book slowly progresses allowing us to meet a strange array of characters. If you are one of the select few – including myself – who enjoy a slow read that allows the reader to get involved with the characters, then this book is perfect for you … to begin with. The story slowly but surely develops as Dylan’s father disappears, my safety net was lowered a few pegs, lengthening the great fall: although there is no mystery to the disappearance.

Now the ending: I wanted and expected a brilliant ending from such a great author. An ending that would slice my safety net and laugh as I fell. No such luck! As expected a crime takes place but not an awesome work of art, not the masterpiece that we expect from the back of the book, not the two hundred page still-don’t-get-it-at-the-end crime, Oh no! Only the best for us, a three page is-it-really-that-dismal sort of crime. It was like raising my net a thousand pegs then letting me take the elevator back down.

For a mostly enjoyable story with a lead balloon of an ending, 6/10.