- Mystery
- Illustrated Chapter Books
- Ages 7–12
The shape of it
The shape of this universe.
Montgomery Bonbon is Alasdair Beckett-King's comedy-mystery series about Bonnie Montgomery, a ten-year-old who solves murders disguised as Montgomery Bonbon, a short, moustachioed, vaguely European gentleman-detective, with her ice-cream-van-driving Grampa Banks always close by. Each book is a self-contained, genuinely fair-play whodunit, from a locked-room museum theft to a storm-lashed lighthouse, a country-house diamond, a sabotaged cruise and an impossible murder on stage, illustrated throughout by Claire Powell. Pitched as Knives Out and Poirot for a young audience, the books teach children how detective fiction actually works while keeping the jokes coming on every page. Cosy, clever and bloodless, they are perfect for newly confident readers who love puzzling out the answer before the final reveal.
Fair-play whodunits for children, starring a girl detective in disguise and her ice-cream-van-driving Grampa. Cosy, clever and very funny.
Primary themes
Tone palette
- Funny
- Whimsical
- Cosy
The series
One way in.
Cultural footprint
A shelf of evidence.
Cultural ubiquity
3/ 5Well-known to people who know the room.
Sensitivity
Low, and collection-wide.
Across the collection
All 5 books.
About the creator