A Terrible Time on the Nile Express: The Express Train to Trouble (A Miss Mallard Mystery) by Robert Quackenbush

At breakfast on the luxurious Nile Express, chaos broke out in the dining car.

The world-famous ducktective, Miss Mallard, could not believe her eyes.

Vinegar in Sir Reginald Baldpate's tea caused him to choke. A trick dribble glass spoiled Lady Teal's diamond-adorned frock, and a slap on the back sent Professor Bafflehead's spectacles flying, as the perennial prankster George Ruddy Duck made his way down the dining car aisle.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Miss Mallard quickly offered Sir Reginald a glass of water and took a seat at the table opposite him.

"I've been so anxious to talk to you. I saw you come aboard with your recent discovery, the Tut-n-Quacken mummy case.

All that gold!"

But not even the noted interrogator Miss Mallard could get any details out of Sir Reginald. His answer to all her questions was "Quite!" Then Miss Mallard asked him about the newspaper story that he had been injured in East Africa.

"What happened?" she asked.

Sir Reginald said, "Tigers chased me," and abruptly got up, leaving his cane behind.

Hmmm. Tigers? And when the annoying prankster George Ruddy Duck was discovered missing the next morning, Miss Mallard was called on to save the reputation of the posh Nile Express and find the missing, if not missed, prankster. Is George Ruddy Duck a dead duck? Has someone purloined the Tut-n-Quacken mummy case?

All the clues are there for the illustrious spinster sleuth, Miss Mallard and young detective readers to solve the case, in Robert Quackenbush's Express Train to Trouble: A Miss Mallard Mystery (QUIX) (Aladdin Books), in this clever take-off on Agatha Christie's classic Miss Marple mysteries, right down to the magnifying glass, flashlight, the versatile knitting needles, and, of course, chocolates, in her ever-present reticule in this beginning chapter book for primary readers who love sleuthing stories.

Miss Mallard seems to be perpetually pursued by problems on various conveyances for the enjoyment of young mystery fans in Quackenbush's other Miss Mallard mysteries, such as Cable Car to Catastrophe: A Miss Mallard Mystery (QUIX), Taxi to Intrigue: A Miss Mallard Mystery (QUIX) and Gondola to Danger: A Miss Mallard Mystery (QUIX), to name a few.

And for young fans of hard-boiled gumshoes, Robert Quackenbush is also the noted author of the Detective Mole series, a great launching pad to the middle reader's favorite, Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective.