The Official Agatha Christie After School Detective Club: 50 mystery puzzles for children by Dr Gareth Moore and Laura Jayne Ayres

In this intriguing and puzzling book children with different skills and talents follow the style of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot to piece together clues and solve big and small mysteries. Using a combination of story telling and logic puzzles and mazes, we follow their deductions as they solve five separate cases.

This is a book for kids who love solving puzzles. There is usually a short narrative introduction to a problem-solving activity page, with several puzzles for each case.  The need to use a pencil to fill in the details on the puzzle pages perhaps precludes this book from finding an easy home on library shelves (too many young readers would find it hard to prevent themselves from leaving their mark). But this would make a wonderful gift for the logical reader who finds joy in solving a mystery or puzzle. The Agatha Christie connection has the sanctioned approval of Agatha Christie Ltd, and there is a brief biography of the well-known mystery writer at the end of the book (after the solutions to the logic puzzles). Kids aged 9-11 (with a little tenacity and logic-enthusiasm) will enjoy the challenge of this book. The reading demands are not high, but the logic puzzles can be stretching, but not impossible for this age group.

Themes: Detectives, Puzzles, Logic, Crime mystery.

Carolyn Hull