Libby and the Parisian Puzzle

When her journalist mum has to fly to South America on an assignment, Libby is sent to stay with her aunt, Agatha Mousedale, who runs a ‘travelling school’ and is currently in Paris.  Despite her aunt getting stuck in traffic, Libby and the new teacher Miss Browne (who she met on the train) make their way to the school and are soon settled in.  Things appear to be going well and Libby is able to make friends, especially with her new roommate Connie.  However, Aunt Agatha finds herself accused of stealing a valuable brooch from a jeweller’s shop, so Libby and Connie start investigating the crime.  Soon, these two amateur sleuths find themselves caught up with an international conspiracy and a master criminal who seems to be avoiding all attempts at capturing them.  Will the girls prove Agatha’s innocence, and can they find the true criminal and bring them to justice?

What a fabulous concept; I think many children would relish the thought of changing the location of their school every term or so.  Learning becomes more exciting and you get to actually see places in real life, rather than on a screen or in a book.  Libby is a fantastic young character, who has ambitions to be a detective, following in the footsteps of her favourite literary heroine ‘Isabel Investigates’.  So, when a real-life crime takes place and threatens her aunt, she does what any self-respecting detective would do; thankfully, she has the more ‘grounded’ Connie to help her and point out when she needs to check her information.  This is a brilliant and fast paced detective story that is going to appeal to all lovers of this genre.  It also has elements of humour, especially with the twin brothers Seb and Noah, who are a pair of tricksters but who manage to help, just by being themselves. The author has given us a superb new series for the middle grade reader and I can’t wait to find out what Libby and her friends get up to next.