 ...The boy detective novel is back with Mac Barnett's tongue-in-cheek homage to the Hardy Boys mysteries. Steve (don't EVER call him Steven), a 12-year-old future detective, has memorized all 58 volumes of the Bailey Brother mysteries, and he carries their Detective Handbook with him wherever he goes. The advice he finds there turns out to be invaluable when he is unwittingly thrust into his first case, clearing himself of a treason charge and identifying the elusive Mister E, seller of America's secrets. Arte Johnson is spot-on as narrator. His serious, straightforward delivery adds just the right leavening to this funny and entertaining story. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
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