The first in a brand-new, laugh-out-loud detective series from award-winning journalist and television presenter Nick Sheridan. Perfect for fans of Pamela Butchart and Serena Patel’s Anisha Accidental Detective.

When a child escapes Madame Strang’s Academy for Enormously Insolent Children in the dead of night, Madame Strang, her cool and calculating right-hand man, Mr Grule, and her overweight sausage dog, Mangler, will do anything to track him down. But friends Riz and Olly know a story when they see one, and with the help of runaway Drew Hill, the trio are soon on a mission to uncover the secret that Madame Strang is so desperate to keep . . . one that involves a dastardly brain-scrubbing invention and an academy full of plain and perfectly behaved children.

It’s the school holidays in Snoops Bay, and Riz, Olly, Drew and Anton are looking for their next adventure. When they decide to visit the town’s most unremarkable tourist spot, Bony Beach, they’re shocked to discover a long-lost shipwreck that sunk to the bottom of the sea with treasure aboard. But their exploration of the ruin is quickly thwarted when they come face to face with the phantom figure of the ship’s captain, Horatio Huxley, and accidentally put a curse on Snoops Bay. Undeterred, our heroes vow to get to the bottom of the mystery once and for all. What kind of treasure is aboard the shipwreck? And who (or what) is so determined to keep it all for themselves?

There’s something growing in Snoops Bay. It started as a lump, then it became a bump, then a mound, then a hill. Now it’s a fully-fledged mountain. When locals and tourists start flocking in their numbers to see the town’s new tourist attraction, Mutant Mountain, Riz, Olly, Drew and Anton know there’s more to the story than meets the eye. As the mountain grows ever bigger, and the town’s very existence begins to be threatened, the gang of friends become even more determined to uncover the mystery. Little do they know, the biggest clue is lying a few miles away at the newly-elected mayor’s enormous pig farm . . .