Milly's Nose

She Can Smell Trouble—And Track It Down

Milly has a nose that knows. Seriously. Her mum says she must’ve been a dog in a past life, and Milly’s starting to think she might be right—especially when a stray cat named Blackcurrant appears, and Milly discovers she can literally smell what the cat is thinking.

At ten years old, Milly’s on a mission to go viral with her best friend Eliza—but their YouTube dreams are falling flat, thanks to a very lazy dog named Banana. That is, until Blackcurrant shows up. Suddenly, Milly’s mysterious talent is their secret weapon, and the internet can’t get enough.

But fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. As Blackcurrant’s star rises, Eliza feels pushed out. Then, just as things start to fall apart, Blackcurrant vanishes. With a frenemy-turned-ally and her super-sniffer on high alert, Milly sets out to bring her cat home—and figure out what friendship really smells like.

A funny, heartfelt adventure for readers 8+ who love clever animals, unexpected friendships, and kids with unusual talents.

Follow Milly, Blackcurrant, and Banana on their first big mystery—start reading now.

Excerpt from the book

Have you ever noticed how other people’s houses always smell so different?

Your own house might smell like wet dog mixed with curried egg but you get so used to it you don’t even realise unless you go away for a while and come back, after a holiday or something like that. But other people’s houses – the smell hits your nose as soon as you walk in the door. Like it’s saying: “You’re somewhere new and a bit uncomfortable, even your nose agrees.”

Smells were Milly’s thing.

Her whole life, she had had an overactive sense of smell. She could smell when her dog, Banana, had been rolling in a different part of the garden to normal, her nose twitched when Mum bought a different brand of biscuits and she could sometimes even smell when her mother worried about something.

People sometimes looked at her like she was mad if she told them that last bit.

But you know how they say dogs can hear on a different frequency to humans, and can hear a lot of things we just don’t even know are there?

Milly figured maybe her sense of smell was operating on a different frequency, too.

Her mum was a vet and sometimes wondered aloud whether Milly had been a dog in a past life. But actually, lots of animals have excellent senses of smell. Like elephants. Milly kind of liked the idea of having been an elephant.

Milly’s next-door neighbour’s house smelt like expensive perfume with a hint of toilet cleaner. Four people lived there – Esme, who was 12, Olivia, who was 15, and their mum and dad. Milly was always a little bit on edge when she visited, as if she might make something dirty just by standing in the wrong spot or mess up the pattern that they had of everything having a very specific place.

That Saturday morning, Milly was standing on their front-door step, waiting for her mum to stop talking to Esme and Olivia’s mother. They’d just got back from the morning market and, as she pondered what she might have for breakfast-round-two, she realised both women were looking at her.

Esme’s mum, Leeanne, smiled. “Daydreaming, Milly? I just asked whether you wanted to go up to see Esme, she’s in her room doing something. Even though it’s such a lovely sunny Saturday.”

“Oh,” Milly shifted her weight from one foot to the other, tucking a stray strand of her shoulder-length brown hair behind her ear. They were always trying to get her and Esme to be friends, but it wasn’t going to work, for lots of reasons.

Mostly, that was because Esme had decided that Milly, aged 10, wasn’t as cool as her older friends. Milly wasn’t too bothered. “I have some piano practice I should do.”