The Highland Falcon Thief

The Highland Falcon Thief by M. G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman is a steam-train mystery for 8 year olds about a boy who really didn't want to go.

What happens

Harrison Beck (Hal to his friends) is being packed off with his Uncle Nat while his mum goes into hospital to have his baby sister. Uncle Nat is a travel writer who adores trains and wears six watches at once. Hal thinks trains are boring.

This one isn't. It's the royal steam train's very last journey, from King's Cross up to Scotland and back. There's a glass observation car full of plants, a library, a billiard table and a dartboard (on a moving train!).

The passengers are quite a crowd. A film star who admires her own reflection in the train window. A countess with five fluffy Samoyeds in diamond collars. A baron and his scowling son. A loud businessman off the telly and his wife, who loses a diamond brooch before dinner on the first night.

Then a countess's earrings go missing too, and guess who gets the blame? Hal. On top of that, he keeps glimpsing a girl hiding on board, even though everyone insists he's the only child on the train.

This is a proper whodunnit with a carriage full of suspects to line up. Hal is always drawing, so he sketches the people around him, and your reader can play detective right alongside him. The train itself is a big part of the fun, from the dining car's Yorkshire puddings to hanging out of the window over the Forth Bridge and getting covered in coal smuts.

There's a lovely warm thread too. Hal starts the trip sulky and a bit lonely, and slowly warms to his funny, train-mad uncle. The moment he tells Uncle Nat he can call him Hal, like his friends do, is very sweet.

It's gentle as mysteries go. Hal does worry about his mum, and one grown-up is unkind to one of the dogs, which animal lovers might wince at.

Got a child who loves spotting clues and guessing whodunnit? This is a brilliant pick, and solving a jewel theft on a royal train is about as good as it gets.

What to read next

If they're keen for more mysteries by M. G. Leonard, Twitch is the first Twitchers book. It follows a boy who'd rather watch birds than people, and who takes on four bullies to save a pigeon before he's even got into school.