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The Kenyan Expedition

The Agatha, Girl of Mystery Series by Steve Stevenson

The Kenyan Expedition by Steve Stevenson

Review: Dash Mistery, a student at the Eye International Detective Academy and known undercover as DM14, receives an urgent message that he has a new assignment, to find a rare, white giraffe, that has gone missing in the heart of Africa, in The Kenyan Expedition, the 8th book in the Agatha, Girl of Mystery series by Steve Stevenson.

Dash immediately rushes to his cousin Agatha's house, only to find she has gone off to the market. With only hours before his flight is to leave, he needs to enlist her help on the case. Fortunately, he finds her in time, and soon thereafter Dash, Agatha, Agatha's butler Chandler and her white cat Watson, are jetting off to Kenya to meet up with another relative based there, Haida Mistery. She is to be their guide and driver while in the country. A cross-country trek leads them to Masai Mara Reserve, where the giraffe was last seen. It isn't long before Agatha and Dash pick up clues that the giraffe didn't just wander off, but was taken by poachers. And they are determined to track them down!

The Kenyan Expedition is a fast-paced story that will keep kids entertained as Agatha and Dash pursue the poachers, who have taken Hwanka, as the local villagers call the white giraffe. The story isn't really written in the style of a mystery, however. There are clues to be followed, of course, and while they point the young sleuths in the right direction, it isn't clear that the clues themselves were the reason why. It all seems a bit arbitrary. Too, it would have been better had either Agatha or Dash actually expressed when they suspected as to what really happened and the identity of the mastermind behind the theft of the giraffe, instead of declaring they knew all along after the fact. Still, it's unlikely the target audience of this book will necessarily care as to the order of what happens when as the overall adventure is a fun one.

The publisher recommends this book for readers aged 8 to 12. This book has a Lexile measure of 870L.

Acknowledgment: Penguin Group provided a copy of The Kenyan Expedition for this review.

Review Copyright © 2015 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

Selected reviews of other mysteries by this author …

Mystery Book Review: The Eiffel Tower Incident by Steve StevensonThe Eiffel Tower Incident
Grosset & Dunlap (Trade Paperback), March 2014
ISBN-13: 9780448462233; ISBN-10: 0448462230

Location(s) referenced in The Kenyan Expedition: Kenya

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The Kenyan Expedition by Steve Stevenson

The Kenyan Expedition by The Agatha, Girl of Mystery Series

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Format: Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-0-448-48679-6
Publication Date:
List Price: $5.99

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Page Author: Lance Wright
Site Publisher: Mysterious Reviews

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