Eliza Marciniak

Detective Nosegoode is famous and retired. He spends his retirement walking his “shaggy mutt,” Cody; gardening his radishes, sitting on a bench reading the paper and playing his flute in the evenings. Life is slower than what the good detective is used to. Who would know that an adventure is about to begin?

A mysterious Bearded man who lives next door at Mrs. Hardtack’s house watches the detective and Cody whenever they walk out their front gate. This makes Cody, a very special dog show more nervous. Especially after the Detective is asked to solve the robbery of Mr. Swallowtail, the chemist’s very old music box stolen from Mr. Blossom’s Clock shop. Who has stolen the music box, is it the Bearded Man or someone else? Read the book to find out. I enjoyed the mystery in this story. I thoroughly enjoyed Cody, the Detective’s dog. Some of the characters were well developed and children will love them. The Bearded Man might scare a younger child, just like he did Cody, however for middle-grade children it will just give them another person to wonder about. Never fear, Detective Nosegoode is here and the guilty party will be found!

This story reminds me of a childhood book that I loved (and read to my children) called “Tee-Bo the Talking Dog”. Cody, like Tee-Bo, can talk. Detective Nosegoode is lucky to have such a good friend, and Cody is lucky to have the detective too.

Mr. Orton does a good job of taking middle-grade children through their, possibly, first chapter book mystery. He sets them up for the clues and even walks them through solving the case. That is a perfect for an 8-year-old when they are just learning about sleuth books.

I appreciate, Ms. Marciniak, translating this book into English. It’s not one that a child should miss.

I received this book from Pushkin Children’s Books in lie of my honoest review. show less