When you first meet the heroine of this book, Wilma Tenderfoot, she is dangling precariously from a meat hook in the pantry of her orphanage. As you read through the series of four books you realise that this is a common circumstance for Wilma.

Wilma lives at the Cooper Lowside Institute for Woeful Children, a grim and horrible place ruled over by the nasty Madame Skratch, who is every bit as mean as her name sounds.

Wilma idolises Cooper Island's most famous detective: Theodore P. Goodman. It is Wilma's greatest ambition to be a detective just like him. She carries a key ring full of press cuttings about with her of his most important cases and constantly refers to these cuttings whenever she finds herself in a tricky situation (which is quite often).

The book is really exciting and it has lots of twists and turns. It is also very funny and I love the style of writing, with Emma Kennedy commentating and commenting on the story like she's talking to you.

At the end of the story there is a recipe for Wilma's favourite biscuits, Corn Crumbles. It is a great idea to make a batch of these to nibble while you read books 2, 3 and 4!

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