In 1702, Captain Nicodemus Grimm died when his boat, the Dreadnowt, exploded in Widdlemouth Harbour. To be fair, he did set his own gunpowder ablaze in the stupdiest possible way, but that has never stopped the town celebrating Grimmfire Night every year.
This night, however, things haven’t gone as planned. All of the fireworks exploded at once and the captain of the recreation of the Dreadnowt was found dead in his cabin. And then he wasn’t – in his cabin, that is. His body was found ashore – but completely bone dry.
Bonnie Montgomery and her friends are not the people to solve this crime. It needs the detective genius of Montgomery Bonbon himself, who just happens to be hiding in Bonnie’s backpack…
Two blogging friends of mine, Jim and Brad, often sing the praises of the mysteries involved in children’s fiction. One author in particular caught my attention, namely Alasdair Beckett-King. He’s a stand-up comedian and producer of YouTube content and, basically, extremely funny. He’s clearly versed in crime fiction, based on some of his sketches, so I’ve been keeping an eye out for his books in my local library for a while.
To explain the set-up – Montgomery Bonbon is a Poirot-esque character who happens to be a false moustache, a long coat and a mangling of several European languages that Bonnie wears to become the great detective.
And it’s all jolly good fun. By the end of the second page, we’ve had the words widdle, poop and boob but there’s some much smarter jokes along the way – something for everyone’s sense of humour. There’s some great art too, courtesy of Claire Powell, that adds to the narrative.
And amid all the piratical shenanigans, there’s a decent mystery here too. The plot has the levels of a Golden Age mystery with far more than just “Person X did it” and the ending is very satisfying.
Easily the best children’s book that I’ve read in an age and miles away from the mysteries of my youth, namely The Hardy Boys and The Three Investigators. If you’ve got kids, why not read this to them, because you’ll probably enjoy it just as much as them. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for the rest of them.
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
I’ve only read the first one in the series so far, but it was utterly charming. As you say, a book that a mystery-loving parent will have just as much fun with as their child. A nice reminder that I need to get back to this series soon!
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The thing that impressed me is that the solution is more complex than a lot of adult books while being told with complete clarity so kids will understand it.
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Glad you enjoyed this — they’re proper mysteries, and loads of nonsense fun into the bargain. I’m hoping ABK gets to keep writing them for many years yet.
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You might consider trying some of the other excellent mysteries written for children and middle-school ages in recent years. In particular, try Marthe Jocelyn’s four-book Aggie Morton series, where 12-year old Aggie Morton befriends 12-year old belgian refugee Hercule Perot in 1902 and they begin solving mysteries. Each book is progressively better, and are inspired by Agatha Christie’s childhood. You might also enjoy the Myrtle Hardcastle series set in 1890s England (though I didn’t care for the fifth book in the series).
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