Darkly comic but full of heart, Justin Davies (Help! I Smell a Monster and Whoa! I Spy a Werewolf  – Orchard Books – ) and Floris Books bring us this quirky middle-grade mystery, and it is perfect for fans of Malamander and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Below, the author introduces us to the world of Haarville.

Haarville
By Justin Davies
Published by Floris Books

Welcome to Haarville — if you’ve arrived, you’ve survived. Off the grid and not on the maps, it’s a place shrouded in fog and steeped in pungent pongs. Everything here smells fishy, especially the town’s suspicious new arrivals.

Twelve-year-old Manx Fearty is an orphan (his family has a terrible habit of dying, terribly), and now he’s about to lose their perpetual device shop to sinister newcomers claiming to be long-lost relatives. As he sets out to prove them wrong, Manx finds himself on the trail of a murky, mist-muddled mystery — and it’s one he needs to solve fast, otherwise Haarville is doomed.

With the help of his fiercely protective drag-queen guardian Father G (aka the fabulous Gloria in Excelsis), loyal best friend Fantoosh, and oystercatcher-with-attitude Olu, Manx wades through secrets, schemes and some stomach-churning seafood. Can he save both his family’s legacy and his town?

Haarville by Justin Davies is published by Floris Books, priced £7.99.