Ulf Nilsson (text) and Gitte Spee (illustrator), A Case with a Bang (Detective Gordon, #5), Gecko Press, March 2023, 116 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781776574889
A Case with a Bang is the final instalment in the delightful and funny award-winning Detective Gordon series.
This fifth whodunnit mystery is set in a friendly forest where two cake loving detectives work together to solve the mystery. One is a retired but very experienced toad called Gordon and the other is Buffy an extremely energetic mouse.
Badger, a member of the forest community, reports that he is being disturbed at night by a horrible, scraping sound and an annoying humming coming from the forest. And, that his trash can has been damaged. Some time later, three large creatures are sighted in the mountains.
Following her first investigation, Detective Buffy is left flat as a ginger bread, seemingly trampled by something huge and scary. Perhaps this mystery is far more dangerous than Buffy first suspected.
Meanwhile, retired Detective Gordon and his new trainee police assistant have a problem of their own – the forest bakery has run out of cakes.
One by one, the forest animals seek refuge at the police station. They are terrified. Buffy starts to think about Gordon’s troll stories. She wonders if there could be some truth to them. Buffy remembers Gordon’s advice about how everyone thinks differently, and she discovers a way to communicate with the enormous creatures – and she realises that just maybe they are not so fearsome after all.
Readers are left with an important Gordon message: Everyone thinks differently, strangers are welcome, cakes for everybody which translates to fair and balanced detective work, kindness to new and existing people and choosing to do the right thing.
Winner of multiple awards and accolades, Detective Gordon is a mystery series with depth—perfect for reading alone for emerging readers, wonderful for reading aloud together as a chapter book or a just-right match for individual chapter book readers. This final instalment in the award-winning Detective Gordon series is recommended for readers aged 6-9 although some children would benefit from some pre-teaching of vocabulary such as laboriously, scoundrels, lumbered, knuckled and engrossed (perhaps eating a small cake whilst learning some new words might be helpful!). Equally as charming, gentle, funny, and entertaining as the rest of the series. Interested children are encouraged to read the additional titles in the series.
Reviewed by Julie Deane
