The Best Children’s Mysteries
My interest in mysteries started at a very young age. I have discussed my love of Mathnet earlier on this blog. But mysteries written for children are a very special subgenre. In children’s mysteries, the author usually can’t include any serious violence, especially murder. Not only that, but a children’s mystery often has to feature a child protagonist. If you have a child as a detective, how does that young person perform a proper investigation?
There were several series of children’s mysteries I enjoyed growing up– the Encyclopedia Brown books, which required a wide knowledge of trivia to solve; and the Boxcar Children mysteries, which often did not include actual crimes or detection, were frequently on my reading list. But my favorite children’s mysteries, written for children, featuring children investigating, were E.W. Hildick’s McGurk Mysteries.
The McGurk Mysteries were a series featuring a group of young children who ran their own detective agency and did a remarkable job solving crimes. At first there were four members of the group: Jack McGurk, the leader of the group with a lot of self-confidence, a manipulative streak, and a surprisingly effective sleuth. Joey Rockaway, the narrator of the group and the organizer of information. Wanda Greig, a tree-climbing expert. The final member of the main group was Willie Sandowsky, whose preternatural skill for smelling proves frequently useful. Several books into the series, Gerald “Brains” Bellingham, a technology and science whiz, joins the group, followed a bit later by the sixth and last member, Mari Yoshimura, a ventriloquist.
The mysteries ranged from catching bank robbers to retrieving stolen jewelry to finding missing to proving a pet cat is innocent of killing birds. Some of the books are quite dark, involving kidnappings and preventing murders before they happened. The books were funny, with terrific characters, and though they were geared towards children, Hildick never spoke down to children.
Unfortunately, all of these books are out of print, and I worry that they will soon be lost. Hopefully, they can be brought back to the public attention so a new generation can enjoy them.
–Chris Chan
Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3rd. His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7th. His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there). It is also available in a Kindle edition.
