Kidnap on the California Comet

M. G. Leonard's Kidnap on the California Comet is a train mystery for 9 year olds about a boy crossing America by rail, and a billionaire's daughter who goes missing on the way.

What happens

Hal Beck has just turned twelve, and this trip is his birthday present. His uncle Nat, a travel writer, has been sent to cover a top-secret press conference by the tech billionaire August Reza. So off they go on the California Comet. It runs from Chicago all the way to the coast near San Francisco.

Hal draws everything. The marble hall of Chicago's Union Station. The enormous double-decker trains. A woman sitting with a lizard round her shoulders like a scarf. He notices people, which is exactly what a detective needs.

Before the train even leaves he's met Mason, who copies every word you say for his "voice bank", and his sister Hadley, who does card tricks. Then there's Marianne Reza. She's bored, sulky and very keen to escape her huge bodyguard, Woody.

Her father travels in his own private carriage, the Silver Scout, a gleaming old Vista Dome car from 1948. The table sinks into the floor when you tell it to, and the windows are bulletproof. When Hal and Uncle Nat are invited in for a look, who could say no?

The fun is in the clues. Nearly everyone Hal meets has something a little bit odd about them (the woman next door who glares and shuts her curtains straight away, for a start). Your reader will end up suspecting all of them. There's lots of lovely train detail, because Uncle Nat LOVES a locomotive, and lots of America rolling past the window, but it never gets slow.

Hal is a gentle, thoughtful hero. He's a bit shy with new people and happily admits he's more of a train person than a plane person. There's a nice running joke about Americans calling crisps "chips" that confuses him no end.

Any child who likes spotting things before the grown-ups do will have a great time with this one.

What to read next

This is Hal's second adventure, and it mentions his first trip on a royal steam train. If they'd like to start at the beginning, pick up The Highland Falcon Thief, where a very reluctant Hal is packed off to Scotland with his uncle while his mum has a baby.