THE MALTED FALCON

The metaphors fly thicker than flies on ripe garbage in fourth-grade gumshoe Chet Gecko’s seventh schoolyard caper. It’s a tangled web indeed for Chet and mockingbird sidekick Natalie Attired: a prizewinning ticket good for a year’s worth of jumbo desserts from a local mall’s sweet shop has been stolen—but by whom, and for that matter, from whom? Suspects abound, from shifty prairie dog Freddie Nostrils and compulsive liar Lili Padd to Sally Monella, tough girlfriend of burly marmot Bert “Sounds like a colorful character” Umber. Being the gourmandizing gecko that he is, Chet takes an intense personal interest in the case—particularly after he’s kidnapped by hulking muskrat minions of a shadowy “Mr. Big.” Tucking in an occasional black-and-white drawing to mark the high (or low) points, Hale propels his tough-talking shamus all over Emerson Hickey Elementary in search of clues (and snacks), then wraps up the mystery with a kidnapping and a brisk dustup. A teacher turns out to be the real villain, and Chet is left at the end weighing whether to turn the recovered ticket over—or in. The sleuth with the smart mouth shows no signs of slowing down (or graduating, for that matter), and should continue to draw fans like fleas to a dog show. (Fiction. 10-12)