Kat Wolfe Investigates by Lauren St. John

Title: Kat Wolfe Investigates

Author: Lauren St. John
Page Count: 304
Rating: A-
Format Read: e ARC
Genre: Middle Grade
Keywords: Mystery, animals, adventure
Kid Appropriate: Yes
Release Date: October 9, 2018

Synopsis from Goodreads:

When twelve-year-old Kat Wolfe starts a pet-sitting agency, she soon finds herself unraveling a mystery, in this first book of a new middle-grade series from award-winning author Lauren St. John.

After a break-in at their London home, Kat Wolfe and her veterinarian mum decide it's time to move to the country. Dr. Wolfe's new job on England's Jurassic Coast comes with a condition: They have to adopt Tiny, a huge Savannah who resists Kat's best attempts at cat whispering. Kat starts a pet-sitting agency to make pocket money, but then the owner of her first client, an Amazon parrot, vanishes from his gadget-filled mansion. Only one person shares Kat's conviction that he's the victim of foul play: Harper Lamb, an American girl laid up with two broken legs thanks to her racehorse. Kat and Harper team up, but what starts out as mystery-solving fun turns deadly for the duo. When all clues point to a nearby army base, can they count on their unruly animal friends to save the day--and their lives?

My Review:

This one had a bit of a slower start but it wasn't long before we were following along on a great mystery filled with a whole host of interesting animals and humans alike. While I may be an adult now, I still enjoyed this start to a new series and absolutely would have adored it when I was a child obsessed with the likes of Animal Planet and Crocodile Hunter dreaming of maybe one day being a vet.

I enjoyed the complex and diverse family dynamics that were witnessed in this novel as well as the fact that they were not presented in a way that children may not grasp immediately.

The mystery was great and will be a joy to students before they graduate to older books such as Truly Devious, A Study in Charlotte, or Sherlock Holmes.

I would not give this to my younger cousins that are about first grade reading level but I would give it to family friends' children between the ages of 8 and 14.