The “hard-boiled” detective story has a colorful history in literature and film. Although most of the genre’s archetypes involve tough guys living in Los Angeles, Jack Lime’s home turf is Iona High School, Nova Scotia. Jack nurses a root beer float, carries no weapons, collects no retainers; he usually ends up at the wrong end of a fist, but he always solves his cases, bringing the culprits to justice. Jack Lime introduces himself and the three short stories in this collection, saying, “I’m a detective, a private investigator, a gumshoe. What I do is fix problems” (7). What he’ll do is provide mysteries to chal lenge his readers. lmp

Things might get rough, they might even get a little messy, but I was okay with rough and messy as long as I could shut the lid on this dirty case. Meet Jack Lime, private investigator, who solves problems for his fellow Iona High students. Sometimes he falls for the dames who hire him, sometimes he falls in the river and sometimes he falls asleep (he's narcoleptic). But rest assured that whether he's tracking down a missing banana-seat bike or a kidnapped hamster, or cracking open a trivia tournament betting ring, Lime will follow every lead. Readers will identify with this funny, cynical sleuth who has the makings of a top-notch PI, though his personal life frequently goes awry. In these three stand-alone detective stories, readers will immerse themselves in an offbeat fictional world populated with eccentric characters where everything is not as it seems. AGES: 10-14 TEACHING POINTS: * Language Arts: Genre/ Literature/ Understanding mystery ILLUSTRATIONS: 4 colour