The Greek Who Stole Christmas

Anthony Horowitz's The Greek Who Stole Christmas is a comic detective story for 9 year olds where the bodyguard is hopeless and his little brother does the real work.

What happens

This is the seventh Diamond Brothers book, and it's nearly Christmas in Camden Town. Nick is fourteen. He's so broke the charity shop manager runs out and tries to give HIM charity.

His big brother Tim isn't helping. He's just been sacked from a department store where he was meant to be catching shoplifters (the store had fewer departments when he left than when he started).

Then a man in a very loud suit walks into the office. He manages Minerva, one of the biggest pop stars in the world. She's had a letter saying this will be her last Christmas, and her husband wants a private detective to keep her safe in London.

Hiring Tim for that is, as Nick says, like buying her a knitted cardigan when she needs a bullet-proof vest.

A second threat turns up inside a Christmas cracker, with a little silver acorn. Minerva is due to switch on the Regent Street lights the next evening. She hates Christmas, but she's got a single coming out, so she's going.

At the lights, Tim is at his very best. Or worst. Shots ring out, he throws himself at Minerva to protect her, misses completely and lands on the big red button instead!

It's all in Nick's voice, and there's a gag in almost every line. Tim keeps getting the client's name wrong and takes everything literally. Ask him whether he can keep a secret and he says he's not going to tell you. Underneath all that, Nick is sure the threats don't quite add up, and your reader gets to puzzle it out with him.

It's not all jokes, though. There are gunshots at a crowded public event, and Nick leaps between two rooftops seven floors up (he gets a cut lip and some bruises). Some jokes are pitched older too, with a few cheeky lines about Minerva's figure.

There's also a running gag about a made-up charity for overweight children, which pokes fun at them for being lazy. If your reader is sensitive about jokes on weight, that part might sting. If they love a wisecrack and don't mind a bit of danger, it's a very funny Christmas caper.

What to read next

New to Nick and Tim? The Falcon's Malteser is the brothers' first case, with the same empty cupboards and a very nervous client who pays two hundred pounds to leave a package with them.