Snoops, Inc. # 4 - The Vanishing Treasure

This series has been a fun little series of easy reads, with some perfectly plotted mysteries that are aptly suited for the young reader age group at which the books are aimed.  Yes, the stories are short (after all, they are intended for fourth graders - although, honestly, I could have easily read these in third grade, and probably second as well), and there are plenty of fantastic illustrations in each chapter drawn by the extremely talented Mariano Epelbaum; but, quite frankly, if you want a twenty or thirty minute escape from the pressures of real life, these are the perfect go-to books!

 

The Vanishing Treasure is the fourth book in the series, which features the twin crime solving siblings, Hayden and Jaden Williams, with their two best friends, Keisha Turner and Carlos Diaz.  Together, these four are Snoops, Inc. - four junior detectives who are ready, willing, and able to help when needed.  As the tag line reads:  "No case too small ... we solve them all!" As with the previous books, the first chapter opens with the conclusion of a case - in this instance, the Snoops have set a trap to capture a bicycle thief, and their coordinated stake-out results in trapping the culprit when she attempts to steal Jaden's shiny red bike, which was used as bait.  With that case behind them, Hayden is free to focus on her upcoming challenge - the annual Math-tastic Regional Tournament!  About the only mystery there is the identity of Hayden's online friend, with whom she has been chatting about the tournament for weeks.  The two plan to meet for the first time at the tournament, and Hayden could not be more excited!

 

Of course, a real mystery gets in the way when the two Math-tastic trophies - one for the winning team and one for the highest-achieving individual - are both stolen from a locked case in the school lobby.  Hayden calls in the rest of her Snoops team, and they are on the case.  Hayden is concerned that the thief could turn out to be her online friend, who she believes to be Anya, a new contender in the math tournament.  All clues do seem to point to her, but Hayden does not want to believe it.  The culrpit could also be Warren Garvey, the student from Hayden's own school who was disqualified by their teacher for cheating on an exam - and boy, is he angry about not being able to participate!  Can the school win without him?  There's also Newt Loggins, a quiet young boy that does not seem to fit in.  As the saying goes, you can never really tell about the quiet ones!  A crumpled up practice test, some saw dust on the floor around the trophy case, a mask that looks like one of the suspects, and a witness's description of a person fleeing the scene all lead the Snoops to only one conclusion - the wrong one!

 

Author Brandon Terrell creates a fun surprise near the end when he reveals not only the real thief, but also the reason for the theft and the true identity of Hayden's online friend.  It all leads them into the school basement, where they get trapped in the boiler room just minutes before Hayden is supposed to be back on stage for the final math competition.  It's a race against time to get Hayden back in the competition and stop the trophy thief before he pulls off one final steal!

 

Enjoyed Terrell's side-story about Jaden's attempts to learn how to perform magic tricks.  Sure, he may have been bumbling around in the beginning, but those tricks turn out to be very important when the kids are locked in the boiler room - a well-placed subplot that seemed to have no importance whatsoever actually worked right into the main mystery quite nicely.  Kudos to Terrell!

 

Another winning read - as I say every time, it's a shame this series didn't last.

 

RATING:  8 grape suckers out of 10 for a calculatingly good mystery featuring a few surprising twists and turns! 

Snoops, Inc. # 3 - The Cursed Stage

Every once in a while, you want a really quick read, but at the same time, you want a story that is enjoyable.  That may not always be easy to find, but fortunately, with the Snoops, Inc. series, I have the perfect combination of both.  Written by Brandon Terrell, with plenty of internal illustrations by Mariano Epelbaum, these early reader stories may only be 100 pages or so in length, with large font and one or two full or half page illustrations in each chapter, but they are chock full of fun mysteries.  Terrell is a self-proclaimed lover of mystery stories, and his author blurb in the back of the book reveals he has more than 200 Hardy Boys books in his collection!  That definitely gives him a heads-up in the mystery department - and it clearly shows in his writing of this series.

The Cursed Stage is the third book in the Snoops, Inc. series, and with it, I was pleased to find two of my favorite past times merged into this one mystery - comics and theater!  The book opens with twins, Hayden and Jaden Williams, and their two best friends, Keisha Turner and Carlos Diaz, who are the four members of Snoops, Inc. ("No Case Two Small ... We Solve Them All!"), hiding out in The Comic Vault in order to catch a thief.  And catch a thief they do!  The four spring a trap that catches an employee of the store who has been pilfering high-valued comics and selling them on the side to make himself some easy money.  It's always funny to see authors create fake names for books, comics, movies, and other pop culture things in order to avoid any copyright problems - so, in this story, we get Metal Miracle, Zom-Borg, and Arachno-Boy instead of Iron Man, (not sure of the middle one - a combination of zombie and cyborg, perhaps?), and Spider-Man.  And, of course, Action Man is an obvious placeholder for Superman (who first appeared in Action Comics back in the day).

 

By Chapter Two, Terrell and Epelaum move us into the actual mystery that is the focus of this book, as Hayden, Jaden, Keisha, and Carlos are helping out their middle school drama teacher with the school play for the year.  All four are working behind the scenes, but poor Jaden just cannot help but be enamored with the star of the play, a fellow classmate by the name of Frankie Dixon (gee, wonder how the author came up with that name?  If you can't figure it out based on what I told you in the first paragraph of this post, then do some research....).  Frankie is a former BFF of Keisha, but the two parted ways for reasons not explained in this book (maybe a future story?), and she is definitely a high-maintenance diva.  Frankie knows she's a star (even if her Daddy donated a lot of things to the school and the pay to help earn her that spot), and she will not let anyone take the spotlight away from her - not even the ghost that is haunting the play.

 

What, what?  A ghost?! That's right.  Terrell gives us a haunted theater (or, a cursed stage, as the title proclaims) for the Snoops, Inc. team to figure out.  Ghosts aren't real, as the kids know, but someone is clearly "haunting" the theater.  Someone does not want the production of Wagons West! to go forward ... or, is it more specific?  Does someone not want Frankie Dixon to be the star of the play?  While astute readers will be able to spot the culprit from the get-go, I must say the mystery is well-plotted, with little clues placed conveniently along the way so that the age-group for which this series is intended can have fun trying to pick them out and solving the mystery right along with the Snoops, Inc. gang.

 

Epelbaum's illustrations are beautiful and add so much to the story.  They really make me miss all of the internals that the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, and other series books used to have back in the day.  I think the publishers are really missing the mark when they do not include illustrations in their stories.  It is not just grade schoolers and middle schoolers who enjoy the illustrations - older readers like them as well! (Kensington publishers got it right back in the late '70s and early '80s when they produced the line of illustrated Gothic novels and Mystery Puzzler novels for adults!)  Epelbaum's illustrations capture some great suspenseful moments in the story, and some of them even add an element of clues to the story if the reader studies them carefully!

 

(The one thing the author did forget is the stage light - every theater always has one single light that remains on at all times - it's a superstition that goes back many, many years, and pretty much every theater I have ever seen has one!) 

 

It's rather a shame this series did not last beyond its six book run back in 2017 - not sure if that was the author's choice or the publisher's decision, but both need to take another look at it!  These kids deserve more stories!

 

RATING:  8 falling western-town-painted flats out of 10 for a hauntingly good tale of ghosts, mysteries, and tons of theater fun!

Snoops, Inc. # 2 - Science Fair Sabotage

It's been more than a few months since I read the first book in this series, but I do remember finding the first book to be rather cute.  Thus, when I picked up this second in the series, I was expecting to find the same level of enjoyment, and I did.  This is a fun little series about four middle school children who have formed a mystery-solving squad they call "Snoops, Inc."  While the books are relatively short, with tons of internal illustrations, the stories are actually well-plotted, and readers have the opportunity to pick up on clues right along with the Snoops to try and solve the case before they do.  I know as a young reader, I would have thoroughly enjoyed these books.

Science Fair Sabotage is set at a school science fair (obviously), when twin sixth-graders Hayden and Jaden Williams have projects they are hoping will win.  Jaden has the cliched volcano, set with a timer that will cause the "lava" to erupt; while Hayden has developed an app that she hopes will be able to scan fingerprints just like the computers police use.  Their friends, and fellow snoopers, seventh-grader Keisha Turner and eighth-grader Carlos Diaz, are there to support them.  But after they and their fellow classmates set up their projects the night before, they come in the next day to discover their projects have been sabotaged!  Jaden's volcano erupts well before the start of the science fair; the microchip that stores the app on Hayden's computer is missing; a girl's backpack that has the blueprints for her project has gone missing; and a boy's robot has had the hard drive removed from its back.  Four projects damaged, while the project of another young boy named Tariq - who has no problem boasting about how his project will win the fair - was left alone.  Needless to say, all signs point to Tariq ... or do they?

Jaden, Hayden, Keisha, and Carlos are on the case, looking for clues, determined to get to the bottom of the science fair sabotage.  A miscolored footprint near Jaden's volcano; the girl's blueprints found under a table, but without her backpack; some small rubber bands near the boy's damaged robot; and a mysterious hooded figure running out of the school carrying a suspiciously familiar-looking backpack lead the four kids on a chase to catch the saboteur.  With only 104 pages and larger than typical font, the story moves very fast, and it isn't long before the culprit is revealed and the reason for his (or her!) actions are brought to light.

 

One element about the story that I thought was well done was Jaden's insecurity about not only his science project, but about his place on the team.  Hayden is the computer genius, Carlos is the face of the team, and Keisha is the brawn - so where does that leave him?  He has doubts throughout the story, but by the end, he does come to the realization that he does have a very important place on the team, and his contribution is just as important as the others.  A nice moral for young readers to remember that they do not have to have the same skills and qualities as others to still be important!

As I was reading the story, it dawned on me how similar this series is to the Zebra Mystery Puzzlers that I read as a kid (and am now re-reading as an adult).  The cover illustration, as well as the interior ones, have clues to the identity of the saboteur, and the clues in the story itself are pretty straightforward.  While the Zebra Mystery Puzzlers are not as easily discernible (after all, that series is written for adults, not middle-schoolers), the clues are there if you know how to spot them.  And I have no doubt that middle-school children who love to read will enjoy trying to spot them in the story and illustrations.

This is most certainly a series I would recommend for those with young readers (and even for adults if you have an hour to kill and want a quick, easy read!).

RATING:  8 Burger BOOM! Double Bacon Cheeseburgers out of 10 for keeping it short and sweet, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Snoops, Inc. # 1 - Tracking Champ

I've had this series for quite a while - came across it on Amazon and thought it looked rather cute.  I bought all six books in the series (there were never any published after the sixth volume), and I've had them sitting on my "to-be-read" shelf for ... well, let's just say it's been about five years and leave it at that.  Not sure why I haven't picked one up to read before now, other than I simply continue to buy more books than I can possibly keep up with and read, so this one managed to stay near the bottom of the stack.  Well, I happened to glance at them when deciding what to read next, and I figured, "what the heck - let's see whether these were worth buying."  And they were!

Tracking Champ is the first of the Snoops Inc. series for young readers.  Written by Brandon Terrell, with illustrations by Mariano Epelbaum, Snoops Inc. is the name of the mystery club consisting of four middle schoolers who love to solve mysteries:  thirteen year old Keisha Turner, twelve year old twins Hayden and Jaden Williams, and fourteen year old Carlos Diaz.  While they may be in different grades, the four friends manage to work well together to solve any case - as the tagline on the back cover says, "No case too small ... we solve them all!"  And this first book finds the Snoops looking for their school's missing mascot, Champ.

It seems their principal has introduced the students to the school's new mascot - a slobbering bulldog named Champ, who also happens to be the principal's new pet.  Not everyone is thrilled about the new mascot.  The star basketball player is allergic, and the head cheerleader (who used to be friends with Keisha, but now they are at odds) would prefer a costumed mascot.  Well, someone has it out for the poor dog, because before one day even passes, the dog goes missing! The principal believes his student assistant was neglectful and failed to fasten the dog's cage, but she swears she locked the door.  The Snoops are on the case, determined to find out what really happened and where Champ is now!

Despite being a series for young readers (aimed at upper elementary and middle school age children), the book is actually written with a rather well-crafted mystery.  Terrell provides several likely suspects, uses a few red herrings to mislead the reader, and the actual culprit comes as a surprise, as it is not one of the likely suspects at all.  Epelbaum provides some wonderfully drawn illustrations inside, with one or two drawings in each chapter.  I admit to liking this, as I miss the days when the children's mystery books had interior illustrations (even if it were only four or five throughout the whole book!).  To me, interior illustrations add a little something 'extra' to the story as you read it.

Something else I enjoyed about this book is that the characters are diverse - Keisha is African-America, Carlos is Hispanic, and Hayden and Jaden are Caucasian - yet, there is no big deal made about this, the story does not focus on these ethnic differences, and one is not made to be inferior or superior to the other.  I've noticed a number of modern children's books are showing a tendency to throw in some "woke" ideals about race, ethnicity, and national origin, trying to impress upon the young reader that as a white American, he or she should be apologetic or ashamed;  Terrell, however, shows the children are simply accepting of one another, ignoring the so-called "differences" that a part of today's society wants to emphasize.  It made the book much more fun to read, as the emphasis was on their friendship, their individual talents, and the mystery itself.

The book did not take long to read (it is only 104 pages, with a number of internal illustrations), but it was enjoyable, and I look forward to reading the next book.

RATING:  8 thick, bright red dog collars out of 10 for providing young readers with a great new mystery series with fun characters and well-plotted mysteries!