SPIDER KANE AND THE MYSTERY AT JUMBO NIGHTCRAWLER'S
by Mary Pope Osborne & illustrated by Victoria Chess
A sequel to Spider Kane and the Mystery Under the May-Apple (1992), set in the same cottage garden. Butterfly Leon Leafwing is a new lieutenant in the Order of the MOTH, a secret crime-fighting band led by Spider Kane—renowned detective, jazz musician, and master of disguise. Leon's mother, his girlfriend, and several veteran members of the Order have disappeared after being lured to the shadowy nightclub district on the banks of the garden creek. Meanwhile, a shipment of gold is missing and someone has been forging Kane's secret signature. Like Sherlock Holmes, Kane handily solves these related mysteries by using his powers of observation, ratiocination, and recall in a tightly plotted tale, well sprinkled with clues if without the sense of menace and the personal odyssey that distinguished the first adventure. Chess's usual wit and whimsy will be at work to illustrate Osborne's perfectly imagined insect world. (Fiction. 6-10)