The Great Mouse Detective 1 – Basil of Baker Street

Eve Titus's Basil of Baker Street is a proper old-fashioned detective story for 8 year olds starring a mouse who learned everything he knows from Sherlock Holmes.

What happens

Basil and his friend Dr Dawson used to trek across London to hide in Mr Holmes's sitting room and listen to him explain his cases. Then Basil had a better idea. Why not move everyone into the cellar at 221B? And so the mouse town of Holmestead was born.

A month later the Proudfoots' twins don't come home from school. Angela and Agatha were meant to stop at the sweetshop. They never got there.

Basil lies flat in the dust with his magnifying glass. Three sets of big footprints. Two little ones, following along quite happily. Then a very nervous messenger turns up with a typed note from a gang called the Terrible Three. Everyone has 48 hours to leave the cellar, or the twins stay missing for good.

Dawson tells the story, so it feels a lot like the Holmes and Watson books (only furrier). One look at that messenger and Basil knows he's an old sailor turned carpenter who came down from the North West by train. Dawson only got as far as "poor, with children" (thanks to a toy kitten in his pocket)!

There's lots of fun on the way. Basil plays Paganini on a violin he's whittled himself, so badly that Dawson begs him to stop. Then they dress up as a sea captain and his first mate and head for the seaside. Basil signs into the inn as Captain Baker, so of course Dawson becomes Mr Street.

The language is old-fashioned and quite wordy ("my dear doctor" and so on). It makes a lovely read-aloud. The best bit is that the clues are all there to puzzle over, and Basil always explains how he worked it out. Who doesn't want to feel like a detective?

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Dawson carries a revolver, the gang talk about throwing the pair overboard, and a young barn owl grabs Dawson in a dark old barn. It's told in a brave, brisk sort of way, so a child who likes a bit of peril should be fine. A very anxious reader might want you nearby for the owl.

What to read next

If Basil wins them over, there are more of his cases in the library. In Basil and the Library Ghost he and Dawson head back to their old college in Oxford for a reunion, and it doesn't stay a quiet trip for long.