A to Z Mysteries – The Bald Bandit

Ron Roy's The Bald Bandit is a Halloween mystery for 5 year olds about a bank robbery, a missing videotape and a hundred-dollar reward.

What happens

It's the day before Halloween. Dink is trying out his plastic vampire fangs. Josh is tearing a green sheet into strips to be a swamp monster. And Ruth Rose turns up as Elvis (wig, fake eyebrows and all).

Then the doorbell goes again. A tall man in a suit says he's Detective Reddy. Someone has robbed the Green Lawn bank, and a teenager walking past caught the robber on his video camera. The detective needs that tape. Find the kid and there's a hundred dollars each in it for them!

So the hunt is on. A stakeout at the high school gets them nowhere. Then on Halloween night, out in their costumes with their sweet bags, they ask at every door about a tall, skinny redhead. Who's going to suspect a vampire, a swamp monster and Elvis?

The clue that cracks it comes from a very silly place. Dink's shoe-polish vampire hair won't wash out the next morning (it goes the colour of rust). A trip to Howard the barber sorts out more than his hair.

This is the second of the A to Z Mysteries, and it's quick and chatty with lots of back-and-forth between the three friends. Josh teases. Ruth Rose shouts (VERY loudly). Dink makes the plans. Your reader gets to spot the clues on that tape right alongside them.

It's worth knowing that the last few chapters get tense for this shelf. A grown-up turns up at Dink's house while the three of them are home alone, and he grabs Ruth Rose for a moment before the police step in. Nobody is hurt and it's over fast. A child who's easily spooked by strangers might like you close by for that bit.

There's a really kind ending too. Lucky, the teenager with the tape, has had a rotten few months, and the three friends do something generous about it.

What to read next

If they're keen for another case around Green Lawn, The Canary Caper has the same three friends searching for a neighbour's missing canary, and then a missing cat.