The Dragon Detective Agency: the case of the missing cats

Gareth Jones (author) 

Nick Price (illustrator)

Bloomsbury, UK: 2007; 190pp

ISBN: 9780747586418

Genres: adventure, crime, fantasy

Dirk Dilly, London detective, is a red-backed, green-bellied, urban-based Mountain Dragon. (Four metres from snout to tail tip, if you really want to know). Business is slow, so when Holly calls about her missing cat, Dirk breaks his usual rules (don't deal with children, don't do lost pets) and takes the case.

Just as well, it seems, as he soon finds that not only are hundreds of London cats being abducted but some of his brethren are involved. And Dirk knows, if Holly doesn't, that when a Sea Dragon, two yellow-backed Scavengers and another Mountain Dragon are working together, then Serious Trouble is being planned and not just for felines. Dirk, with Holly tagging persistently along, must discover the identity of the mysterious beast chained in the Thames before there's any chance of upsetting the dragon gang's evil plans.

Great fun and with the promise of further titles in the series, the Dragon Detective Agency provides eccentric characters, comical adventures and a very strong-minded child heroine. Imaginative and good light reading.