Two Crafty Criminals!: And How They Were Captured by the Daring Detectives of the New Cut Gang (review)

The mean streets of nineteenth-century London are about to get a bit nicer now that preteens Thunderbolt Dobney, his pal Benny Kaminsky, and a few of their fellow classmates are in the amateur detective business. Their first case unfortunately has Thunderbolt taking a hard look at the criminal possibilities in his own family, as a series of counterfeit coins seems to lead to the off-limits laboratory in Thunderbolt's ramshackle house. After solving that case and clearing Thunderbolt's family name (and relieving his suspicions), the kids investigate a theft at the local gasfitters' hall and manages to do some matchmaking on the side. The two stories, originally published separately in the UK twenty years ago, together carry enough old-world charm and good old-fashioned sleuthing to entice fans of Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew to pursue mysteries across the pond. Peppered with British slang and steeped in the gritty-but-glamorous streets of Victorian England, the mysteries bring a distinct sense of place to what are otherwise fairly straightforward plots. A nice bit of slapstick humor and a host of quirky but noble characters, from the hot-chestnut hawker intent on getting his visage in the waxworks museum to the painfully shy guy looking for love, round out the cast and give the entire endeavor a pleasingly wholesome feel. Occasional monochromatic line illustrations, with delicate, slightly eccentric styling, mirror the text's jocular tone.