The Dragon Detective Agency: The Case of the Missing Cats

It’s an ordinary lazy day for Dirk Dilly, mountain-dragon detective, until a young girl called Holly calls about her missing cat. He’s unwilling to take the case on, considering it beneath his dignity, but he reluctantly agrees when she starts to bawl down the phone at him, her howls becoming louder by the minute.

A preliminary investigation leads him to another mountain dragon, whom he follows to a derelict warehouse filled with five suspicious looking crates. There, he comes across yet another mystery dragon, a sea dragon this time. Surely he’s the only dragon living in London so what’s going on? Realising there’s more to this missing cat case than he originally thought, he resolves to continue investigating, but he hadn’t banked on Holly’s determination to be involved. And so begins a partnership between the red-backed, urban-based dragon and a feisty little girl in an adventure that, with every twist of the plot, becomes more complex and scary by the minute.

This is a hugely appealing story owing much to the classic detective genre – with Dirk Dilly a hard-boiled Philip Marlowe-type character – and peopled with stereotypical ‘baddies’, both human and dragon. The book is filled with powerful descriptions of London, its streets, industrial estates and the river Thames, also seen from a bird’s-eye view as Dilly flies over the rooftops. A rewarding read, this is the first book in what should be an exciting new series starring Dirk Dilly.