Saxby Smart

Meet Saxby Smart. Or to give him his full name, Saxby Doyle Christie Chandler Ellin Allan Smart. Yup, his dad named him after all his favourite mystery writers. With a name like that, it's no surprise that Saxby is a private detective, even if he is only 12 years old. He operates out of his garden shed and - via his first-person narrative - his loyal sidekick is the reader of the book. Plus of course his two best friends, Muddy and Izzy. An only child, Saxby has devoured his father's collection of detective stories for as long as he can remember, and now takes on cases brought to him by other pupils at his school, never failing to uncover a web of intrigue and deceit. There are three stories in this collection - The Curse of the Ancient Mask, The Mark of the Purple Homework and The Claspof Doom - with Saxby, and the reader, making deductions and spotting clues to solve each mystery. AUTHOR: Simon Cheshire lives in Warwick with his wife and young daughter. While he was trying to get his work published, he did a number of jobs. In writing children's books, he feels he has finally found his metier.