LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
One of our 2018 Books of the Year
This new series has everything that marks out the best, most satisfying and enjoyable children’s books. For a start there’s a smart but impulsive, ready-for-anything central character in Kat Wolfe, who quickly finds an equally enterprising new best friend, Harper Lamb. Then there’s a procession of the best pets/animal helpers ever, from half-feral Savannah cat Tiny to flighty racehorse Charmed Outlaw, to movie-line quoting parrot Bailey. Put them into an adventure involving genuinely threatening double-crossing secret agents, and incompetent would-be assassins, all set in a beautiful and perfectly described Dorset coastal village, mix in warm family relationships, and you have one of the best new adventure stories of the year. Lauren St John brings all the elements together with seemingly effortless ease and there can’t be a young reader in the country who won’t lap this up.
June 2018 Book of the Month | In a nutshell: animals, adventure and an irresistible cast of characters
Books in The Wolfe and Lamb Series:
1. Kat Wolfe Investigates
2. Kat Wolfe Takes the Case
3. Kat Wolfe on Thin Ice (January 2021)
LoveReading4Kids
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About
Kat Wolfe Investigates Synopsis
After a break-in at their London home, Kat Wolfe and her veterinary-surgeon mum decide it's time to move to the country. Dr Wolfe's new job in idyllic Bluebell Bay on Dorset's Jurassic Coast comes with a condition: they have to adopt Tiny, a huge, near-wild Savannah, who resists Kat's best attempts at cat whispering. When she starts a pet-sitting agency to make pocket money, her troubles escalate. The owner of her first client, an Amazon parrot, vanishes from his fortified, gadget-filled mansion, leaving a half-packed suitcase and a mysterious parcel. The only person who shares Kat's conviction that he's the victim of foul play is Harper Lamb, the American daughter of a palaeontology professor. A language and coding whizz, Harper is laid up with two broken legs thanks to her racehorse, the `Pocket Rocket' - Kat's newest client. What starts out as mystery-solving holiday fun quickly turns deadly for Wolfe and Lamb. When all clues point to an army base, can they count on their unruly animal friends to save the day - and their lives?
Kat Wolfe Investigates is the first in a compelling middle-grade mystery series from bestselling author Lauren St John.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781509871223 |
| Publication date: |
17th May 2018 |
| Author: |
Lauren St. John |
| Publisher: |
Macmillan Children's Books an imprint of Pan Macmillan |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
343 pages |
| Series: |
A Wolfe & Lamb Mystery |
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Press Reviews
Lauren St. John Press Reviews
A story with a great sense of adventure, transporting you to that place of excitement when you can't wait to find out what happens next! - The Book Activist, Book of the Month
All you want from a good mystery - a compelling storyline, a determined lead character, heroes and villains, some intriguing animals for a refreshing change... all excellently interwoven - Parents in Touch
Kat Wolfe Investigates is the kind of book I'd have devoured as a child - lucky, lucky kids having this to read now. -- Abi Elphinstone
Warm, intriguing characterisation with just the right amount of peril - not to mention a resident wildcat. -- Imogen Russell Williams - Guardian
St John is a wonderful writer... this is just the sort of thoroughly wholesome novel that should really be consumed outdoors. -- Emily Bearns - Telegraph
Full of adventure, excitement, heart and wit... Kat Wolfe Investigates is a story to delight in. -- Katherine Rundell St John's book is suspenseful in its shifting possibilities, constructed with care, scattered with information, techno-savvy and engaging in its characterisation -- Nicolette Jones - Children's Book of the Week, Times
Everything you want from a Lauren St John book: timeless storytelling with a contemporary edge, thrilling mystery, characterful animals and tenacious children yearning to make their mark on the world. - Editor's Choice, The Bookseller
Hurrah for a new series from Lauren St John! It's literary Katnip for the summer holidays - especially for dedicated pet fanciers... St John writes with apparent ease, but refuses to compromise on language while mixing modern life with old-fashioned Blyton-style follow-the-clues mystery. It's an excellent combo. If this first invigorating book is anything to go by, St John had better start writing some follow-ups. -- Alex O'Connell - Saturday Times, Children's Book of the Week
Author
About Lauren St. John
Lauren St John grew up surrounded by horses and wild animals on a farm and game reserve in Zimbabwe, the inspiration for her memoir, Rainbow’s End. After studying journalism, she relocated to the UK, where she spent nearly a decade on the European and PGA Tours as golf correspondent to the Sunday Times. She also wrote the acclaimed music biography Hardcore Troubadour: The Life & Near Death of Steve Earle. She is the author of the multi-award- winning The White Giraffe series for children, as well as the Laura Marlin mysteries, the first of which, Dead Man’s Cove, won the 2011 Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Her bestselling One Dollar Horse series was followed by YA horse romance, The Glory, now optioned for film.
My Favourite Children’s Books by Lauren St John
For Love of a Horse by Patricia Leitch. Without doubt this is the book that inspired me most as a child. At the time I was living on a farm in Zimbabwe in Southern Africa and had a black horse called Morning Star and it seemed to me that the way I felt about him and Jinny Manders felt about the chestnut Arab mare she rescued from a circus in For Love of a Horse was identical. This series is just brilliant in every way. I’ve read each book at least five times and would happily do so again.
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotsen. To me, Eva Ibbotsen is a genius. You can pick up any of her books – The Dragonfly Pool and One Boy and His Dog are also fantastic – and be guaranteed a good read. A warm, joyous book to be enjoyed by any generation.
Five Run Away Together by Enid Blyton. I think I read my first Famous Five novel when I was six and I was hooked from that moment on. Sure there are bits of that have dated and Enid Blyton is not the world’s greatest prose stylist. But decades on, the appeal of the Famous Five is as strong as ever. Impossible to resist.
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. The ultimate wish fulfillment fantasy, later made into an award-winning film. I’ve read this book more times than I can count and it never loses it’s magic. The film is great too.
Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell. I read this book as a set book at school in Zimbabwe and it had a big impact on me. Gavin Maxwell’s beautifully written book about his life with otters on Scotland’s remote west coast has been called a ‘masterpiece’ and ‘one of the outstanding wildlife books of all time.’ Anyone who loves animals and nature would enjoy this special book. Ring of Bright Water was later made into an outstanding film starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers.
The Tiger who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr. I fell in love with the smiley, chubby tiger in Judith Kerr’s classic picturebook during one hot Zimbabwe summer when I had to read it four or five times a day to my niece. If it had been up to her I’d have read it even more frequently. Each time I got to the end, she pleaded for us to begin again. Pure genius.
More About Lauren St. John
