Tag crime-solving

Help! I’m a Detective

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Help! I’m a Detective
Jo Franklin, illustrated by Aaron Blecha
Troika

This is the 3rd story to feature middle in the family, Daniel Kendal, and his pals who are polar opposites of one another.

It starts badly with Dan being blamed for the fact that little Timmy has been wielding a stapler, and then just as he’s on the point of leaving for school, the police come knocking on the door. No, the officer hasn’t come to arrest Dan despite what his big sister says to the contrary.

However when he learns about the burglary at Miss Duffy’s residence and then tells his two best friends geeky Gordon and Freddo at school, it seems there’s nothing for it but to assume the role of detective and help the police apprehend the thieves.

Being the near victim of fratricide, a second burglary involving a stolen x-box – surely big sister Jess and boy friend Dazzer couldn’t be the thieves, or could they? Plus an almost ‘friendicide ‘with Dan on the receiving end, as well as a plethora of poo, of the pooch variety I hasten to add, will the boy detectives ever succeed in their task? Can Dan possibly emerge as a hero for once?

With hilarious dialogue, an action-packed, fast moving narrative and suitably zany illustrations from Aaron Blecha, the whole unlikely story is exceedingly silly but enormous fun.

Pigeon P.I.

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Pigeon P.I.
Meg McLaren
Andersen Press
Murray is a private investigator of the pigeon kind. Of late, since the departure of his fellow operative, Stanley, Murray has been taking life rather easy. Then out of the blue – or rather, the rain – who should show up but the Kid, aka Vee, with a mission: to locate her missing friends.

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Intrigued, but not yet ready to take on another case, our narrator Murray asks her to come back the following day. She doesn’t show up and, with the police busy on a ‘big case’, he realises this will have to be a ‘do it yourself’ crime investigation.

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Seemingly there’s a feather thief at large in the town. Who or what is responsible for the dastardly scene that meets his eyes once inside the Red Herring Bar and Grill;

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and why does the voice emanating from the depths of the place sound oddly familiar? Even more importantly, is Investigator Murray ‘s goose well and truly cooked; or will the town’s streets again become safe for his fellow avians of every hue, once and for all?
Meg McLaren’s (Life is Magic) winning piece of detective fiction is bound to make you cackle. Take a look at those end papers for starters, especially if you want to do a spot of detecting yourself. Full of visual and verbal puns, witty details, speech bubbles and delivered in the manner of the best crime writers, this will appeal particularly, to anyone with a passion for setting things to rights. For sure, it’s a case of the more you look, the more you discover …

The Detective Dog

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The Detective Dog
Julia Donaldson and Sara Ogilvie
Macmillan Children’s Books
‘There once was a dog with a keen sense of smell.
She was known far and wide as Detective Dog Nell.
Sniff, sniff, sniff. Time after time,
Nell the Detective solved crime after crime.’

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but this is much more than a crime-solver, which we’ll discover as the story progresses and we meet some of the other characters, in particular her scatty carer, six-year–old Peter and on a particular weekday, (Nell doesn’t do detecting on that day of the week: she devotes Mondays to hearing children read at Peter’s school) his classmates and teacher …

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The smells of the school delight Nell, in particular that of the books. But then, one Monday, the aroma emanating from the school isn’t quite right: something seems to be different. And it is. Mr Jones is distraught: all the books have gone missing.
Immediately Nell is hot on the trail, following her nose out the school, through the town …

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and out into the countryside. And it’s there the thief is unmasked …

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“I know I’ve been bad. … I only meant to borrow. I was planning to give all the books back tomorrow.” is his explanation. Can you guess where this one’s going yet? Nell certainly knows … and off everyone races at full pelt right back to town and into …

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Ted cannot believe his eyes at the sight of such wonders, enrols himself immediately and all ends happily with the school books returned to their rightful place just waiting for those regular Monday visits by Detective Dog Nell. And there’s a new story awaiting her there too …
Nell knows best! Long may she continue, but more importantly, long may that particular library and all our libraries continue – what a wonderful ode to our precious libraries this is. It’s also a brilliant new partnership between two amazing talents.

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