The Candy Mafia

July 13, 2020
Brought in by the new mayor and relentlessly enforced for the last three years, candy prohibition has spawned a black market in 12-year-old detective Nelle Faulkner’s town. Nelle misses candy, but the true loss haunting her is her father’s death. After candy bootlegger Eddie de Menthe approaches the private eye to find a stolen teddy bear, Nelle is thrust into the war brewing between three kid-led gangs controlling the illegal candy trade. As Nelle starts asking questions, a rival gang stink-bombs an illicit candy shop, mysterious adults rifle through the girl’s office, and the bear arrives at Nelle’s home—events that unfurl into a larger mystery. Nelle is convinced the answers lie in the shuttered chocolate factory, whose owner has disappeared. Noir tropes loom large in Tidhar’s fast-paced story, with a gutsy gumshoe, a hardboiled narrative voice (“I needed a job even worse than I needed a caramel fudge”), and enough action to keep young readers on their toes. Ages 8–12.

May 15, 2020
Preteen detective Nelle battles organized crime during her city's prohibition on candy. From the start, snappy dialogue and mannered narration spoofs the traditions of film noir when 12-year-old candy smuggler Eddie de Menthe hires private detective Nelle Faulkner, also 12, to find a missing teddy bear while a candy prohibition hangs over their neighborhood. As Nelle pursues leads in a playground hideout, store backroom, and lonely mansion, she encounters more kid bootleggers as well as crooked adults also on the hunt for the missing teddy bear. Similarities to the real Prohibition reveal government corruption and the difficulties inherent in denying a population what it wants. When Eddie also goes missing, Nelle's case turns to recovering a candy fortune, locating a hidden chocolatier, and restoring peace--and all kinds of sweets--to her sugar-starved city. Food fights, an abandoned candy factory break-in, and more sweets-themed antics add to the fun and intrigue. Breaking up a mostly white cast is Nelle's South Asian friend, Bobbie Singh, who's also integrally connected to the illegal candy trade. In film-noir fashion, grayscale cartoons highlight Nelle's escapades and exaggerate the criminals. While poking fun at the genre, in his debut for children, thriller writer Tidhar also recognizes young people's need for respect. Combining chewing gum and gumshoes, this comical mystery begs to be read aloud. (Mystery. 8-12)

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September 1, 2020

Gr 4-6-Twelve-year-old Nelle Faulkner is a private detective. It annoys her that adults think she's playing. She dresses the part, sporting a fedora and a trench coat; set up an official office in the garden shed; and has actual clients. She works on the right side of the law; but since Mayor Thornton prohibited candy of any kind in town, she's been known to turn a blind eye to the candy bootlegging operations that have sprung up. Nelle is nonplussed when prominent bootlegger Eddie de Menthe hires her to find a missing Teddy-then he goes missing. As Nelle interviews the various candy bootleggers, she stumbles onto an even greater mystery as she learns just how vast the operation is. She's also being tailed by a pair of sinister detectives from the Mayor's police force. Nelle is a sturdy, intrepid, practical character surrounded by a colorful cast of candy-obsessed children and adults in this fast-paced mystery. Grey-toned illustrations and spot art enliven the story. Young readers might not get all the film noir references, but there's plenty here to satisfy tween mystery lovers. VERDICT This is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets film noir; there's mystery, humor, plenty of action, and a red herring or two with an explosive climax.-Brenda Kahn, Tenakill M.S., Closter, NJ

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Starred review from October 15, 2020
Grades 3-5 *Starred Review* It's been three years since new mayor Thornton, promising to make this city great again, signed on to Prohibition?not of alcohol but of chocolate and all other sweets?and so shut down the Farnsworth Chocolate Factory, the town's largest employer. Unsurprisingly, several gangs of preteen bootleggers have since arisen to satisfy the heavy demand for illegal candy. So far, so good (or at least historically predictable), but when one gang leader, Eddie de Menthe, suddenly disappears just as new one Mary Sweetcakes Ratchet arrives to muscle in, 12-year-old private detective Nelle Faulkner finds herself caught up in a scary whirl of arson, burglary, extortion, smuggling, sugary treats, and official corruption. It all centers around the whereabouts of the factory's reclusive owner, and getting to the bottom of that mystery takes Nelle from seedy playgrounds and midnight rendezvous to sewers on the way to a sweet denouement. Tidhar folds in plenty of noir tropes and contretemps (not to mention a stolen teddy bear for a McGuffin), while in his sparse but atmospheric line and fill drawings, Duncan depicts the young gumshoe properly clad in fedora and trenchcoat. It won't take a detective to spot Willie Wonka, as well as Sam Spade, hidden in the tongue-in-cheek caper's literary DNA.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)