The Candy Mafia

by Lavie Tidhar, Daniel Duncan (Illustrator)

Overview

In a city where candy is a crime and sugar is scandalous, Nelle Faulkner is a 12-year-old private detective swept up in a sinister underworld of sweets smugglers. A new hit middle grade noir from World Fantasy Award-winning author Lavie Tidhar!

★ “It won’t take a detective to spot Willie Wonka, as well as Sam Spade, hidden in the tongue-in-cheek caper’s literary DNA.” ―Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

When notorious candy gangster Eddie de Menthe asks for her help to find a missing teddy bear, Nelle Faulkner is on the case. But as soon as the teddy turns up, Eddie himself goes missing! As a seemingly innocent investigation unravels into something more ominous, Nelle and her friends quickly find themselves swept up in a shady underworld of sweets smugglers, back alley deals, and storefront firebombs.

If Nelle has any hope of tracking down her missing client, first she’ll have to unmask the true faces behind the smuggling ring. Can Nelle and her friends find a way to take the cake? Or will they come to a sticky end…?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets Bugsy Malone in this page-turning mystery from World Fantasy Award-winning author Lavie Tidhar. With moody illustrations by Daniel Duncan, readers will be sucked into the action-packed narrative as Nelle pulls the curtain back on black-market candy rings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682631973
Publisher:	Peachtree Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	646,208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Lavie Tidhar is the World Fantasy Award winning author of Osama (2011), The Violent Century (2013), the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize-winning A Man Lies Dreaming (2014), and the Campbell Award-winning Central Station (2016), in addition to many other works and several other awards. He works across genres, combining detective and thriller modes with poetry, science fiction and historical and autobiographical material. This is his first book published for children. He lives in England.

Daniel Duncan is a freelance illustrator inspired by stories, films, old, photos, and sports. Highly commended by Macmillan UK for the Macmillan Prize for Illustration in 2013, he was also shortlisted for the 2014 AOI Awards for the Children’s Books New Talent Category. He creates most of his work in an old stable, now turned studio, on the outskirts of London.

Editorial Reviews

07/13/2020

Brought in by the new mayor and relentlessly enforced for the last three years, candy prohibition has spawned a black market in 12-year-old detective Nelle Faulkner’s town. Nelle misses candy, but the true loss haunting her is her father’s death. After candy bootlegger Eddie de Menthe approaches the private eye to find a stolen teddy bear, Nelle is thrust into the war brewing between three kid-led gangs controlling the illegal candy trade. As Nelle starts asking questions, a rival gang stink-bombs an illicit candy shop, mysterious adults rifle through the girl’s office, and the bear arrives at Nelle’s home—events that unfurl into a larger mystery. Nelle is convinced the answers lie in the shuttered chocolate factory, whose owner has disappeared. Noir tropes loom large in Tidhar’s fast-paced story, with a gutsy gumshoe, a hardboiled narrative voice (“I needed a job even worse than I needed a caramel fudge”), and enough action to keep young readers on their toes. Ages 8–12. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Nelle is a sturdy, intrepid, practical character surrounded by a colorful cast of candy-obsessed children and adults in this fast-paced mystery.…there’s plenty here to satisfy tween mystery lovers….mystery, humor, plenty of action, and a red herring or two with an explosive climax.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

09/01/2020

Gr 4–6—Twelve-year-old Nelle Faulkner is a private detective. It annoys her that adults think she's playing. She dresses the part, sporting a fedora and a trench coat; set up an official office in the garden shed; and has actual clients. She works on the right side of the law; but since Mayor Thornton prohibited candy of any kind in town, she's been known to turn a blind eye to the candy bootlegging operations that have sprung up. Nelle is nonplussed when prominent bootlegger Eddie de Menthe hires her to find a missing Teddy—then he goes missing. As Nelle interviews the various candy bootleggers, she stumbles onto an even greater mystery as she learns just how vast the operation is. She's also being tailed by a pair of sinister detectives from the Mayor's police force. Nelle is a sturdy, intrepid, practical character surrounded by a colorful cast of candy-obsessed children and adults in this fast-paced mystery. Grey-toned illustrations and spot art enliven the story. Young readers might not get all the film noir references, but there's plenty here to satisfy tween mystery lovers. VERDICT This is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets film noir; there's mystery, humor, plenty of action, and a red herring or two with an explosive climax.—Brenda Kahn, Tenakill M.S., Closter, NJ

School Library Journal

2020-05-03
Preteen detective Nelle battles organized crime during her city’s prohibition on candy.

From the start, snappy dialogue and mannered narration spoofs the traditions of film noir when 12-year-old candy smuggler Eddie de Menthe hires private detective Nelle Faulkner, also 12, to find a missing teddy bear while a candy prohibition hangs over their neighborhood. As Nelle pursues leads in a playground hideout, store backroom, and lonely mansion, she encounters more kid bootleggers as well as crooked adults also on the hunt for the missing teddy bear. Similarities to the real Prohibition reveal government corruption and the difficulties inherent in denying a population what it wants. When Eddie also goes missing, Nelle’s case turns to recovering a candy fortune, locating a hidden chocolatier, and restoring peace—and all kinds of sweets—to her sugar-starved city. Food fights, an abandoned candy factory break-in, and more sweets-themed antics add to the fun and intrigue. Breaking up a mostly white cast is Nelle’s South Asian friend, Bobbie Singh, who’s also integrally connected to the illegal candy trade. In film-noir fashion, grayscale cartoons highlight Nelle’s escapades and exaggerate the criminals. While poking fun at the genre, in his debut for children, thriller writer Tidhar also recognizes young people’s need for respect.

Combining chewing gum and gumshoes, this comical mystery begs to be read aloud. (Mystery. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

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