Adventures on Trains: The Highland Falcon Thief
I thoroughly enjoyed going on a fact-finding adventure aboard The Highway Falcon, a locomotive on its final royal voyage. Hal, who reluctantly joins his travel-writer uncle, finds more than he anticipated when he is thrown into the role of unveiling a jewel thief. Brimming with twists and turns, this engaging book will entice and captivate all.
M.G. Leonard (best selling author of Beetle Boy) and Sam Sedgman (debut author) team up to write this steam filled adventure and do so seamlessly. It will leave you wanting more and pining for the next in the series.
I especially loved learning how a locomotive operates through the narrative of two children and feel this is a great way to increase children’s general knowledge of times gone by. This would lend itself really well to introducing steam-works, train mechanisms or rescue stories to children.
“She smiled graciously, her red lips lifting like a theatre curtain, revealing ultra-white teeth.
Hal, who feels he has been sent away as his mother is having a baby, is an avid sketcher, this is mirrored throughout the book with superb illustrations by Elisa Paganelli. Once he finds his train legs uses his observations to piece together clues to solve the mystery of the jewel thief among a spattering of royal decrees including a prince, princess, actress and baron. Surely they wold have no need to steal jewels, would they? Can Hal outsmart the police in the first of a series of mysteries?
“The mess of clues that had seemed as scattered as children in a playground were coming together in patterns.”
I would recommend this book to adventure and detective lovers: reveal clues as you read to help you unscramble the mystery but will you solve it before they reach the end of the line?
Published by Pan McMillan, released 30th January 2020. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529013062/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_7MioEbKN415BK
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