When a famous Kandinsky painting is stolen from the Guggenheim Museum, young crime sleuth Ted Spark knows he must solve the mystery. Twelve-year-old Ted Spark has a new mystery to solve. His cousin Salim is now living in New York with his mother, Gloria, who is a curator at the Guggenheim Museum. When Ted and his older sister Kat visit New York with their Mum, they get drawn into a sophisticated art heist. A series of smoke bombs go off at the Guggenheim, causing mass confusion, then a famous painting, Kandinsky's In the Black Circle goes missing. It's a painting that is worth millions of dollars. Most art thefts are inside jobs and the finger is soon pointed at Ted's Aunt Gloria. It's discovered that Aunt Gloria's credit card was used to pay for a removal van that made off with a packing crate, presumably containing the painting. Ted, Kat and Salim don't believe this for a moment. It's obvious she's been framed. But by who, and why? Robin Stevens (renowned for her Murder Most Unladylike Series) was asked to write this second Ted Spark mystery, based on an idea by Siobhan Dowd. Stevens, a supremely skilled mystery writer, is the perfect choice. The story is expertly laid out, with clues, odd behaviours, run ins with shady characters and a roster of suspects who all deny being the thief, the children excitedly getting closer and closer to the solving the crime until all is revealed by Ted in a sudden lightbulb moment. The Guggenheim Mystery doesn’t have the family dramas of the previous mystery, instead concentrating more on the clockwork precision of its story telling. There are more puzzles and moving parts – smoke bombs, credit card fraud, removal vans, packing cases and misplaced pop tarts – all adding to make a mystery that fits together like an intricate jigsaw. Robin Stevens had a lot to live up to taking on this commission and she comes out with flying colours. Wonderful, uplifting fun. 9+ years The Guggenheim Mystery, by Robin Stevens. Published by Puffin. $14.99 Review by Chris Saliba. Published by Puffin. $14.99 Comments are closed.
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