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Lisa Thompson's Cluey Crew 2 - Watery Ben is a short, snappy mystery for 7 year olds about a rusty key, a lot of holes in the park and a giant clock that vanished one night.
Louie loves collecting clues, which is why his best friend Maddie calls him Cluey Louie. He's started a mystery club, the Cluey Crew, with Maddie, Trivia Olivia, her best friend Tom and his dog Twitch.
It starts when Twitch chases a ball into the bushes and finds them full of holes. In the dirt is a strange metal key. Then the Crew spot three men scanning the ground with metal detectors, taking photos and marking out an oval shape on the grass.
Olivia is pretty sure the key is for winding a clock. A trip to the hardware shop confirms it. The park used to have a huge water clock with wheels, buckets and two faces. Everyone called it Watery Ben. One day it was there and the next it had gone.
What's nice is how the clues keep leading somewhere real. The Crew go to the library, where the local history librarian digs out old photos. They find out who built the clock (it's someone they already know). And one of the metal detector men is in the library too, watching them.
It's a quick read, five chapters in all. That makes it a good one for a reader who likes finishing a whole mystery in one sitting. The Crew are a friendly bunch and nobody is ever in real danger. Tom is a bit worried about his overdue library books, though, until Olivia explains what a book amnesty is!
The best bit might be "Olivia's Trivia", the little boxes of facts dropped in along the way. Did you know a jiffy is a real amount of time? Your reader will find out exactly how long it is.
The puzzle itself is fun to try and solve along with them. There are picture clues, a photo taken from a window and some very odd objects around town. A sharp-eyed reader might get there before Louie does.
If they zip through this one, the Crew's next case is Grandma's Game Show. Louie's gran has baked cookies for them, but when they turn up she's not at home, and then she appears on the TV screen.
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