AN OBSERVER, GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH, TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES and BOOKTRUST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A Waterstones Children's Book of the Month

'I don't know when I last read a book with such pure and unalloyed pleasure. It's ingenious, it's moving, it's charming, it's beautiful, it's exciting, and most importantly the characters are people I feel I know like old friends' - Philip Pullman

Sally Jones is an extraordinary gorilla and a brilliant ship's engineer who sails the high seas on The Hudson Queen with her loyal friend the Chief. One day the shipmates are offered a mysterious job that promises to pay big bucks, but then disaster strikes, the job goes wrong and the Chief is falsely convicted of murder.

For Sally Jones this is the start of a grand adventure and a desperate quest to clear her friend's name. By freighter, steam train and bi-plane the intrepid ape journeys from Lisbon to Bombay and beyond in search of the truth. But powerful forces are working against her, and they will do anything to protect their own secrets...