Agatha, Girl of Mystery #3 - The King of Scotland's Sword

It's been a bit since I last went adventuring with young Agatha Mistery, so I figured it was high time to pick up another one of her books.  This fun little series from Italy, written by Sir Steve Stevenson and translated by Siobhan Tracy, with plenty of great illustrations by Stefano Turconi, is not heavy reading by any means, but it is enjoyable reading that will bring a smile to your face.  With characters named Agatha, Dash, Watson, and Chandler, it's obvious the author is paying homage to some of the world's greatest mystery authors, and the mysteries themselves share some similarities with some of the stories written by those greats.  Agatha may only be a twelve-year old aspiring mystery writer, but she's intelligent, observant, quick-thinking, and talented, and she can solve any mystery in 125 pages or less!

The King of Scotland's Sword is Agatha Mistery's third mystery, and this time, she and her cousin Dash (two years older than her) are staying with their grandfather Ian Mistery, who lives outside of Edinburgh, Scotland.  Our world traveling sleuths are given yet another mystery to solve when Dash's school sends him an urgent assignment - a valuable sword has been stolen from Dunnottar Castle in Aberdeen!  The sword on belonged to Robert the Bruce, the legendary king of Scotland, and it holds great sentimental value for the natives.  What makes this mystery to hard to solve is that all but one of the guests and employees at the castle all suddenly fell asleep at once, and when they awoke, the sword was missing!  Who came in and stole the sword while everyone was sleeping?  And how will Agatha, Dash, Chandler, and grandfather Ian solve the crime before nightfall?  They had better find a way, because if they do not, then poor Dash will fail his detective class!

With this mystery, Stevenson gives his readers a form of "locked room" style mystery, of which Agatha Christie was a master at telling.  An entire room full of witnesses were all somehow made to fall asleep at the same time, during which time the thief came in, removed the famous sword from its glass case without damaging the glass or its casing, and took off with his prize without anyone seeing.  And the only way in and out of the castle was guarded by two police officers (outside the walls of the castle, so they were not asleep).  The only person who avoided falling asleep was the professor's assistant, Ms. Ross, who had gone out to her car to find her purse, as they contained some very important papers the professor needed.  When she came back in after her fruitless search, she found everyone on the floor asleep and the sword gone!  She had not seen anyone come or go, nor did the police - so whodunnit?

Agatha's (and the reader's!) detecting skills are put to the test in trying to solve this crime before dusk falls.  Where was Ms. Ross's purse, which she claims she lost?  Did she lose it, or was that merely a ruse to get out of the castle before everyone fell asleep?  Who could have taken the sword without damaging the glass casing?  It must have been an inside job, but who?  Professor Cunningham, the antique dealer who organized the exhibit? The Earl of Duncan or the oil millionaire Angus Snodgrass, the investors who put up the money for the exhibit?  Director MacKenzie, who ran the exhibit?  The man who claims to have heard a gunshot?  The woman who claims to have seen a ghost walking upside-down on the ceiling? The painter who heard a wolf howl in the hall?  There are plenty of suspects, and limited clues - like the straw, the golf ball, and the peacock feather Agatha and Dash find outside ... the glint of metal at the bottom of the well ... and the secret passage that leads down to the beach at the bottom of the cliff ...

It's a fun romp through an ancient Scottish castle and its grounds as Agatha puts together the pieces of the puzzle, and once they all fit, calls together everyone (like her namesake always did in her stories!) to reveal the identity of the culprit and explain how he put everyone to sleep and managed to sneak the sword out of the castle without anyone seeing him!  Definitely a mystery worthy of Ms. Christie herself!

RATING:  9 deflated balloons out of 10 for a well-crafted mystery that features a hot-air balloon ride, a search through a dark tunnel, and a race against time to solve a seemingly unsolvable crime!