EYE SPY BY TESSA BUCKLEY. 

Genre ... MG Children’s detective story (ages 9-12 years)

Publication Date ... 2014

Standalone First Book in the Eye Spy series

Estimated Page Count ... 160

Purchase from Amazon ... - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eye-Spy-Tessa-Buckley/dp/1785890190

When Alex and Donna set up Eye Spy Investigations and start looking for a valuable missing dog, they soon have an interesting assortment of suspects. There is the mysterious man in the fur hat; a gang of bikers who hang out at the Starship Café; and Crazy Kath, the bag lady, who may know more than she’s letting on.

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But as they struggle to make sense of the evidence, the twins begin to uncover an even bigger mystery in their own family. As events spiral out of control, can Alex resolve a family crisis, save Donna from imminent danger, and return the missing dog to its rightful owner?

A 'middle grade' novel, read with two of my little bookworms aged ten and twelve.

After a lukewarm reception to the cover and the fact that it took a while to get into the story all three of us agreed that this was a good read with interesting characters.

For myself, taken back to the child detective novels of my childhood and in particular Enid Blyton's Famous Five, I really enjoyed main characters, twins Alex and Donna as did my two fellow readers who, not dissimilar in age, were excited at the thought of starting their own detective agency - one of the sure signs of a good book in my eyes is when readers are thus inspired, thankfully there was no mention of them wanting to learn how to play Poker or turn the school boiler room into a gambling den.

The father however, well, a reclusive would be inventor who locked himself away in a disused railway carriage at the bottom of the garden, my two young readers instantly thought of the father in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and were disappointed and, yes, shocked {the youngest one actually cried} when he turned out not to be quite the loving father they had expected and hit one of the twins. For myself, whilst not convinced by the need of 'trigger' warnings on books, I admit to being a little surprised that there was no warning of this. I'm just as pleased I was reading the book with the bookworms and was able to discuss this aspect of the story with them.

A detective mystery combined with a family drama, there are several threads to Eye Spy {some of them featuring some fairly deep social issues}. The twelve year old and I followed the book without difficulty, the ten year old, hmm, not so easily; both boys agreeing that they'd have been equally happy if the book had only comprised the mystery of the Missing Dog and not 'all the other stuff'. 

A good read though perhaps better suited to the older end of the recommended age range of nine to thirteen years/the more emotionally mature reader. With two out of three of us eager to see what case next awaits the teenage detectives, its largely a 👍 from us.

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With thanks to Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for organising a paper copy. One of several bloggers participating in the Blog Tour of this book, agree or disagree with me, all opinions are my own; no financial compensation was asked for nor given; threats of violence towards my favourite teddy bear went unheeded as did promises of chocolate.

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