Speedwheels 3000: The Race Against Crime

Jenny Pearson does an absolutely brilliant job of cranking up the pressure in this funny and highly energetic journey across Europe. Jumping from city to city our protagonist Evie Clutterbuck somehow manages to avoid disaster whilst constantly steering into it!

Our story takes place over this years’ Speedwheels 3000, a trans-European race taking in some of Europe’s most important racetracks. Evie somehow manages to stow away in her dad’s trusty and always reliable race car and does a brilliant job of not only co-driving but also a fairly good amount of police-work. When this year’s race becomes embroiled in a Swiss Bank robbery everyone becomes a suspect including Evie and her Dad. The story jumps from scene to scene with an amazing amount of energy and a lot of laughs including some entertaining running (or rather racing) jokes.

Chapters are very manageable, which in turn leads to this being a very accessible read. Pearson also has a lot of fun with the formatting with a list of character cards at the beginning of the book and regular investigation prompts throughout the story to get readers thinking amongst a lot of other playful bits of book design.

Thankfully Race Against Crime does not require any prior knowledge of motor racing – it also does not require a huge amount of buy in! There are lots of lovely teachable moments throughout the book which touch on some very important themes. One of the key elements of Evie and her dad’s story is around grief and how people deal with it differently and how talking is a key element of dealing with the things that stay with us. This book was so much fun to read because of its pacing and its extremely likable narrator/co-driver!