Rumbling a conman is the task in hand for brothers Dan and Tom in Georgia Byng’s highly-enjoyable The Ramsbottom Rumble (A amp; C Black pound;8.99). One of a series called Black Cats aimed at fluent readers aged eight and above, this is a light-hearted seaside story about a lively grandmother, her beauty parlour, and a sports-car-driving Lothario. Georgia Byng’s other current novel, Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism (Macmillan Children’s Books), will receive more attention, but this shorter book is great fun too, and narrated with what are clearly this author’s hallmarks: vivacity and verve.