Review by Booklist Review
Kate and Ted are visiting their cousin Salim, now in New York thanks to his mother's new job as a curator at the Guggenheim Museum. As in their first adventure, The London Eye Mystery (2008), they are called upon to become detectives, here because a painting has been stolen and Salim's mother arrested. The book's narrator is 12-year-old Ted, described last time out as having a brain that runs on a different operating system (seemingly autism spectrum disorder); yet it's his ability to see patterns, indiscernible to most, that allows him, with Kate and Salim's help, to identify the real perpetrator. The previous book's author, Siobhan Dowd, died, leaving only this sequel's title; in an author's note, Stevens describes how she went about constructing this novel from three words. She's done an admirable job with the characters. Ted especially is his same quirky self, a boy both a participant in and an observer of his life. The mystery has a few creaky spots, but Stevens moves things along briskly. A welcome return for this dynamic trio.--Ilene Cooper Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-Ted understands patterns but not people. Due to his ability to see details most people ignore, he was able to find his missing cousin Salim in the first book in this series, The London Eye Mystery, written by the late Siobhan Dowd. Aunt Gloria and Salim now live in New York. Aunt Gloria is a curator at the Guggenheim and has invited her younger sister Kat and Ted for a week's visit. Ted hates change and knows he will miss his father who remains in London; his dad is his explainer who tells him what idiomatic expressions mean and helps him navigate an often confusing world. The family goes to the museum when it is closed to the public and at that very moment smoke bombs are dropped and an expensive Kandinsky painting is stolen. The police arrest Aunt Gloria and everyone panics. Now it's up to Ted, Kat, and Salim to solve the mystery and clear Aunt Gloria's name. Through a process of deductive reasoning, they work through the list of suspects. Swift pacing and smartly integrated clues allow readers to make connections along with the characters. Stevens's portrayal of Ted, who is on the autism spectrum, is positive and empowering without being trite or falling prey to tropes. VERDICT A top mystery for middle grade readers.-Lillian Hecker, Town of Pelham Public Library, NY © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The characters from deceased author Siobhan Dowd's The London Eye Mystery return to solve a painting theft from NYC's Guggenheim Museum. Twelve-year-old Ted teams up with his sister Kat and cousin Salim after Salim's curator mother is falsely accused. Ted's Asperger's--his need for routine, obsession with patterns, and difficulty interpreting facial expressions and idioms--infuses his narration and informs the mystery's progression. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A clever junior detective must solve an art heist in this New York City-set sequel to the late Siobhan Dowd's London Eye Mystery (2008).Twelve-year-old Ted Spark, his 14-year-old sister, Kat, and their mother, Faith, fly to the U.S. to visit Ted and Kat's cousin Salim and eccentric aunt Gloria. Tourism soon segues into investigation when a painting at the Guggenheim, where Aunt Gloria works, goes missing and she becomes the prime suspect. Although overwhelmed by the strange city and uncertain about his friendship with Kat and Salim, Ted uses his encyclopedic knowledge, keen observation skills, and appreciation for patterns to try and prove Aunt Gloria's innocence. Perplexed by figures of speech, Ted nonetheless embraces metaphors, relating his adventures through meteorology and Homer's Odyssey. Although never explicitly identified as such, Ted presents as someone on the autism spectrumliteral, unfiltered, routine-orientedbut Dowd and Stevens (Murder Is Bad Manners, 2015, etc.) depict him as neither a savant nor a saintly sufferer. Rather, Ted Spark has a "funny brain, which works on a different operating system than other people's," much like his fictional predecessors Sherlock Holmes and Encyclopedia Brown. Ted notices racial differences, such as Salim's brown skin, but he seems to adhere to the white default with respect to himself and the rest of the family.Fast-paced, suspenseful, but never scary, a middle-grade mystery with a singular voice and a welcome continuation of the Sparks' adventures. (Mystery. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
