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|title=The Space Crime Conspiracy

|sort= Space Crime Conspiracy

|buy=Yes

|borrow=Yes

|pages=320

|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

|date=July 2010

|isbn=978-0747599814

}}

Thirteen-year-old Stanley Bound is an ordinary boy from south London who lives above a pub with his bad-tempered half-brother Doug. He is bullied at school, and the situation only gets worse when he discovers that the popular new boy Lance has been both lying and stealing. Lance gets his revenge by framing Stanley, and now no one trusts him, even his grumpy brother. Little wonder, then, that our sad and lonely hero dreams of travelling to distant places to escape his miserable life. But as we all know, that is a dangerous desire: Stanley should have remembered that people who get what they wish for often regret it. By the end of the book he has travelled the universe, been accused of murder, and met more bizarre characters than even his wildest dreams could have created.

Gareth P Jones' book is a joyful medley of fantastic creatures and crazy situations. Coincidence is occasionally stretched so far it's definitely going to need new elastic, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. After all, if you accept the main premise (ordinary boy is target of several alien species, and even he can see why they might suspect him of murder) why worry? We are reassured right from the start that Stanley will escape danger eventually, because dotted throughout the book are scenes set in an Earth police station where detectives and a psychologist are questioning Stanley about where he has been and what happened to him. But the message of the book is that you cannot believe appearances, and Stanley's adventures are not over when he returns to his home. A couple of characters feature early in the book and then fade out, which is a shame, but apart from that this is a thoroughly good read with an interesting slant on such topics as genetic modification and power.

Further reading suggestion: Young readers who want to see their hero narrowly miss certain death in a variety of exciting ways will also enjoy [[The Incredible Luck of Alfie Pluck by Jamie Rix]].

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