Solve Your Own Mystery: The Transylvanian Express

By Author / Illustrator

Gareth P. Jones, Louise Forshaw

Genre

Mystery & Detective

Age range(s)

Publisher

Little Tiger Press Group

ISBN

9781788954495

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

12-10-2023

Synopsis

One puzzling mystery. Several slippery suspects. Endless possibilities! Welcome to Haventry, a town where the ordinary and extraordinary collide! With ghosts, werewolves and zombies living side by side, trouble is always brewing. And when a fiendish crime is committed, YOU are the detective in charge of the case.

All aboard the Transylvanian Express! YOU and your yeti boss Klaus are headed to Castle Ursprung, home of the infamous vampire Count Fledermaus. But before you get there, you have a mystery to solve: Night Mayor Franklefink has vanished from the train. Someone onboard must have played a role in his disappearance but who has the strongest motive? Could it be Franklefink's archnemesis Bramwell Stoker? Or is Sandra Rigmarole, elf District Governor and colleague of the Night Mayor, a more likely suspect? Or perhaps Franklefink's monster wife has suddenly turned against him? YOU decide!

With hundreds of paths to choose from and no dead ends, you'll solve the mystery every time! A fantastically imaginative detective story for readers looking for an interactive adventure.

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Reviews

The Solve Your Own Mystery series is such a great, fun, interactive detective genre set of books for younger, independent readers. The latest in the series, The Transylvanian Express, is a lively, quick-moving and extremely fun adventure. You, the reader, alongside your detective agency boss (Klaus the Yeti), have been invited on board the Transylvanian Express train by an unknown client. Destination: Castle Ursprung and a possible audience with reclusive , feared vampire Count Fledermaus. Detective assignment as yet unknown.

On board, there are some unfamiliar and very suspicious faces from the Shady side of town so it is no surprise that foul play is afoot. When Night Mayor Franklefink goes mysteriously missing from the moving train, you and Klaus need all your spooktacular sleuthing skills to draw up a list of motives and suspects from your fellow freaky passengers; including the vampire Bramwell Stoker (running against Franklefink in the Mayor elections) and Enormelda, Franklefink's new (and very shoddily made) unhappy, unloved wife.

I think this was my favourite of the series so far with the crime taking place on a moving train with carriage after carriage of captive, sneaky suspects to interrogate. The race against time to solve the mystery before the train reaches its destination, and the sheer puzzle of where you hide someone on a train, add to the exciting drama of the story. The range of classic horror figures made fun for the young reader is witty and joyously done by both author and illustrator, and the illustrations always play a part in what choices the reader makes at a chapter end when you, as the assistant detective, get the final say on where to take the investigation next.

Involving the reader in the storyline is such a different, engaging story style and Gareth P Jones does it excellently. It encourages active, thinking readers and has great appeal. Naturally, as soon as you reach your (first) chosen ending, you want to go back and see exactly what the alternate endings and who the other villains could have been.

A brilliant series of books that work well as a solo detective mission or as a group crime-busting task in a classroom!

224 pages / Reviewed by Jennifer Caddick, teacher