5th May 2016, Egmont, 320 pages, Paperback, Review copy
Book summary
Twelve authors.
One challenge: can YOU solve the crimes before the heroes of the stories?
Nayu's thoughts
12 crime themed stories
by 12 popular children's crime writers. You may be wondering who the
Crime Club members are, so I will tell you. They include Clementine Beauvais, Elen Caldecott, Susie Day, Julia Golding, Frances
Hardinge, Caroline Lawrence, Helen Moss, Sally Nicholls, Kate Pankhurst,
Robin Stevens, Harriet Whitehorn and Katherine Woodfine.
I've read novels by most of them, so it was fun discovering the
new to me authors as well as reading from my favourites. The book was
cleverly divided into 4 sections, with a forward for each explaining
about the category of crimes. There were a couple of stories I
couldn't get into so I left them and moved on to the next. I'm going
to pick 1 story from each category and chat about it.
Impossible
Mysteries: Rain On My Parade by Elen Caldecott is full of feathers,
drama and intrigue when a carnival costume within a locked room is
mysteriously ruined. I had no idea who did it so the culprit was a
pleasant shrprise. I enjoyed Minnie's enthusiasm, her ability to sift
through the evidence and put almost invisible clues together in her
mind to find the culprit. You can see a review for Ellen's book The Mystery of Wickworth Manor by Elen Caldecott (Children's, 9 years +, 9/10)
Canine Capers: While not being fond of dogs in real life-I'm
very much a cat and small animal girl, I love them in fiction, and
have read many books where dogs go missing (as well as ones where the
dog helps the detective). I'm picking Mel Foster and the Hound of the
Baskervilles by Julia Golding. This was a surprise read as I honestly
expected it to be too scary for me to carry on reading. I fell in
love with the unusual detective team, and am eager to read more of
their adventres in Julie's books. They have fun while solving the
case, have unusual personalities and I'm thrilled to have met them.
Poison Plots I choose the Mystery of the Pineapple Plot by Helen Moss,
because one of the detectives, Catherine, is my favourite character.
I adored the secret sentemce she uses to talk wih her partner, whose
identty and name are intriguing, i liked having a foot in both the
staff and family within the house, because that was the only way to
get all the clues to solve the murder. I was very disappointed when
the story ended because I wanted it to continue!
For the final
section, Closed-System Crimes I choose the Mystery of the Purloined
Pearls by Katherine Woodfime due to the delightful amount of drama
going on backstage when a diva's pearls are stolen at a theatre.
Really it is melodrama, which made it even funnier. I mean missing
pearls aren't on the same scale as someone being poisoned or even
missing dogs, and yet I was gripped from start to finish, and yet
again sad when the story ended. How the pearls went missing and who
took them was a clever twist, with so many accused and able to be
the guilty party until logic was applied.
Overall this is a superb
book, a great way to sample varus auior's work without committing to
12 different novels before knowing if you like an author. As part of
this blog tour Kate Pankhurst, author of Dazzle, Dog Biscuits and
Disaster which narrowly missed being my top tail in the Canine
Capers section (It os so very clever how red herrings appeared in the
missing Dazzle the dog mystery, and the high stakes nor just for
Dazzle), has written a post for you to read!
Detective Dreams by Kate Pankhurst
I had many childhood
‘phases’ inspired by film, books and TV. There was the Indiana Jones phase
– I was fixated on becoming a globe trotting archaeologist who knew cool
stuff about ancient dusty objects and laughed in the face of danger. Then
followed the Mallory Towers/St Trinian’s phase, which involved hopes of being
sent to boarding school (by my cold uncaring parents) where I would collect
lots of prefect badges and fend for myself.
Bit of a problem with
both of those phases – I didn’t know much about ancient dusty stuff and we
just weren’t very posh so being sent away to boarding school was never going to
happen. Also, much to my disappointment my parents quite liked me so there was
no dramatic story involving finding my my own way in the world with only my
dorm mates and a matronly teacher for support. BORING.
But then came the
detective phase and the realisation that mystery, unlike The Temple of Doom,
could be lurking close by! Maybe in the Not So Innocent Old Lady Next Door’s
house? Or in an undiscovered box concealed under the floorboards of my bedroom
by a family with a dark secret who once lived in our house. Or in my high
school drama studio – was it actually
haunted, like ashen faced pupils and teachers swore it was?
Daydreams of mystery
were definitely the best because there was always the chance that they might
not remain day dreams – that it might be me who could be clever and brave
enough to crack the case. To fuel my obsession/pick up tips on being a top
detective I devoured all things mystery, from books I didn’t really understand
to ITV dramas. I wasn’t fussy as long as I could imagine me and the starring detective
being mates. I’d start of as their sidekick but I’d quickly progress to being
one of those sidekicks who knew more than the leading detective …
George from the Famous Five by
Enid Blyton: I felt me and
George had a lot in common. I was a tomboy and admired that George didn’t seem
to give one of Aunt Fanny’s jam
sandwiches that she was frequently mistaken for a boy. I liked to think that
we’d form our own breakaway mystery solving duo. The Terribly Talented Two, or
something. Then, we’d take the Famous Five’s dog (Timmy) with us as we headed
out to sea in a rowing boat bathed in moonlight to find a smugglers cove.
Penny from Inspector Gadget: OK, Inspector Gadget may have had a cool hat
with an extendable arm inside it but Penny was the undisputed brains behind his
success. I longed for the day when you could buy a watch, just like Penny’s, that
was a computer able to do all sorts of crazy stuff. For many long hours during
the 1980s I resorted to using my brother’s Speak and Spell as a sophisticated
communication device. **Rushes out to purchase an iwatch so my
fantasy of being just like Penny can finally come true**.
Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot:
Well, the ITV drama adaptation,
starring a meticulously moustachioed and continental David Suchet. The only
man/adult in my list of inspiring childhood detectives, I loved Poirot because
he seemed like a nice unassuming chap, but mess with him and you’d be sorry.
Also, Poirot’s cases involved actual coldblooded murder. MURDER! On a Sunday
afternoon! And I was allowed to watch it, because I was very grown up (or liked
to think I was) and could definitely handle solving a real life murder. The
fact that while watching I never had any inkling who the murderer might be and
was always completely shocked by Poirot’s revelations didn’t put me off imagining
that I had it in me to be an Agatha Christie-esque old fashioned super sleuth. One
who probably who wore pearls and a pair of sensible shoes.
I did dip my toe in to some further Agatha Christie reading borrowed
from the local library. Aged eleven it went over my head, but still, I liked
the idea that everyone said ooooh, look, she’s
reading Agatha Christie! As if I was very advanced for my age.
Velma from Scooby Doo: As a child it was Scooby Doo’s Daphne who I was
fixated on, mostly because of the funky dress and cool purple tights. But I see
clearly now that Velma, with her astute mind, practical orange chunky knit
jumper and thick rimmed glasses, was undoubtedly the best detective on the
Mystery Machine. I suppose Fred and Daphne made useful assistants, but I’ll
never quite understand why Velma insisted on hanging around with Scooby and
Shaggy. If it wasn’t for their faffing around she’d solve the case in five
seconds flat, and get to the glory of the if
it wasn’t for you meddling kids bit much faster.
The All American Girl Detective: I can’t pin this down to a single mystery novel,
comic or film – she’s a combination of lots of different American influences. She’s
the girl who lives in a tree lined US suburb, has a Chopper bike, an actual
land line phone in her bedroom, a best friend who lives next door and an
ideally placed tree by her bedroom window allowing her to sneak out and conduct
secret midnight investigations. I wanted all of those things and it was hugely
frustrating that my bedroom window hardly opened far enough to get an arm out
of. No good for sneaking anywhere unnoticed by my parents, I did have an under
bed detective HQ though. There wasn’t much headroom, but it was top secret.
I’d love to say that
all the time I spent imagining myself solving mysteries and now, writing
mystery fiction, meant that I actually did solve a huge real life mystery. I never
have.
The closest I came was
embarking on a research trip to my local library with friends (aged twelve-ish)
to see if we could uncover any truth behind that rumour the school drama studio
was haunted. I imagined the spine tingling anticipation I’d feel scrolling
through old newspapers on a microfiche machine (who knows if the local library
even had one of those but they had them in films). I’d discover a long
forgotten news story about the unsolved murder of a student who came to a
sticky end in our now haunted drama studio …
The reality was that
no sooner did we decide we must
investigate, the idea was unanimously abandoned for fear that if we did
actually discover any ghostly truths we’d be so scared we’d suffer hysteria and
terrible nightmares for the rest of our lives.
I may never have
actually solved a real life mystery but what the detective genre helped me to
develop was an over active imagination (very important for my chosen career).
It made me think about my own ambitions for the future and that maybe, just
maybe, if the fictional detectives I admired could be the clever ones who knew
what to do, perhaps things wouldn’t end too badly if I had a go at that too. (If
only I could get over being a bit of a wimp.)
I love the idea that
young lovers of mystery today get the same buzz imagining what it would be like
to be in the shoes of the fictional detectives they can’t get enough of.
Find out more on Kate's website.
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