NO MORE MAGIC

Chris' stolen bike, Muffin's missing warlock costume winning the Halloween parade for a mystery marcher, even the disappearance of Muffin's parents. . . creates a tangled puzzle that Chris sets out to solve logically according to the system of his librarian dad. According to Chris, who delivers his findings in a hang-loose first person report, evidence of magic at work becomes undeniable and it looks like the local junk dealer, Mr. Bullens, must be a practicing warlock. But even a witch couldn't anticipate the final twists of this plot, and though the solution isn't quite cricket by detective novel rules, it works an amusing twist on those by now routine manifestations of the supernatural in suburbia.