The Case of the Secret Tunnel (Maisie Hitchins) by Holly Webb

The Case of the Secret Tunnel (Maisie Hitchins) by Holly Webb
Buy The Case of the Secret Tunnel (Maisie Hitchins) by Holly Webb at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Louise Jones
Summary: A young girl uses her detective skills to solve the mystery of some stolen artworks.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 176	Date: May 2014
Publisher: Stripes
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 9781847154361
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Maisie Hitchins is a detective series set in Victorian London centred on the adventures of our titular heroine who lives and works in her grandmother’s boarding house. In The Case of the Secret Tunnel, Maisie has to solve a mystery involving art smugglers, stolen washing and the London Underground. Sleuthing is hard work, but Gran won’t be pleased if Maisie neglects her chores, especially as the boarding house has a new guest, one who seems to be acting very suspiciously indeed...

It can be a challenge reading a book mid-way through a series, as many of the characters have been introduced and established in previous books. Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult to pick up the story, although there seemed to be quite a few characters introduced at the beginning of the book who never appeared again and I’m sure it would have made more sense for me to have read the previous four books in order to establish the backgrounds and relationships of the people in the story. Despite this, The Case of the Secret Tunnel still works well as a standalone novel with a distinct plot that ends neatly with no cliff-hangers.

I loved the Victorian London setting, which was unique and different. I found the references to the early London Underground interesting, as it is easy to forget that they used steam trains and the tunnels must have been incredibly dusty and dirty. Webb pictures each scene perfectly, especially Gran’s apprehension at riding a train underground in the dark and her relief at emerging into the bright light of day!

I have read many of Webb’s books and am constantly amazed at her versatility as an author, which is due, largely, to her empathy for her characters. She seems equally at ease writing about puppies and kittens as she is writing detective fiction or fairytales. Her writing always has something fresh and new to offer the reader. Maisie and her puppy Eddie are delightful and memorable characters that are sure to be popular with young, would-be detectives.

I recently enjoyed reading The Reindeer Girl by Holly Webb, a beautiful winter story about the relationship between humans and animals.

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