December 30, 2010

Brixton Brothers # 1: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity - by Mac Barnett

Steve wanted to be a detective more than ANYTHING.  At least he did until this seventh grader was accused of treason against the United States, and became the subject of a major manhunt by both ultra-secret highly-trained killer librarians and the bad guys, who were not nearly as scary as the good guys.  As Steve ran for his life, learned more about quilting than any teen boy would ever want to know, and tried to solve the country's greatest criminal mystery, he began to think that the detective's life isn't so great after all.  He'll either solve the mystery himself or get himself and his dopey best friend sent to prison forever.

This a pretty good mystery, and a goofy but fast-paced thriller.  It's kind of like the old Hardy Boys books, but much more silly.  The pictures are great, and the characters are interesting, in fact I enjoyed this much more than I had expected to.  My copy has a much uglier cover, and I'm glad the publisher made a change so quickly.  If you like mysteries and detective stories, you'll probably get a kick out of this series, and have a few laughs as well.

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