Recent Failure:
Mrs Butterworth’s pet goats, George and Fred, remain missing. She asked for our help a few days ago after recieviing flyer for a “two for one” mystery-solving offer, which closes at the end of thes week. We have searched and cannot find the goats. Highly probable they have left Milk Bay and are headed for city lights.
Bernice, moody, nice, noisy, picky, leaned back in her office chair, munching the end of a pencil. It was a habit she had. She coughed as she choked on pencil shavings, spitting pencil crumbs on me.
‘One day a doctor’s going to cut open your stomach and find a forest in there,’ I told her as I wrote down an alternative occupation in my notebook.
David and Bernice are back in their second Milk Bay adventure. Business is open again after the school holidays. The ‘Walk Right In Detective Agency’ (office in Bernice’s front garden) solved all last term’s cases, and is looking forward to new business. First Mrs Butterworth’s two goats have to be found, and Mr Bottle at the council wants their help on a flower-napping from the park next to the council. Cherry Bright wants to know who her secret admirer is. The police are busy investigating a much bigger crime – the theft of $150,000 from the local bank. Meanwhile David is becoming obsessed by another mystery. He’s sure he saw a boy in the upstairs window of the house across the road. No one else believes the boy exists, and the adults in the house are anything but friendly. Even Bernice thinks that he is imagining things. David is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, whether she helps him or not.
High Crime in Milk Bay, like the first book in this new ‘Walk Right In Detective Agency’ (WRIDA) series from Walker Books, Open for Business, is written in the first person. The viewpoint character, David, is half of the WRIDA partnership. He fancies himself a detective in the old style, complete with notebook notes observing all manner of things. Even when in situations where he can’t reach his notebook, his unwritten observations are recorded in the text in a bold handwriting font. They solve their first cases with little difficulty. It is their last case, one for which they have not been engaged, that threatens to cause them more challenge. Written with great humour and pace, this story will quickly engage young readers. Recommended for mid-primary readers.
High Crime in Milk Bay, Moya Simons Walker Books 2008 ISBN: 9781921150401