I wanted to love it but it didn’t work for me at all unfortunately. I’m not sure why because it was written well but something just didn’t click.

What's not to like about a book by Robin Stevens inspired by Siobhan Dowd? Just read this now!

I absolutely loved The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd, and regularly recommend it in our shop, so when I heard that, following her sad passing, Robin Stevens was picking up the mantle to write a sequel, I was very excited. Robin is another of my favourite children's authors. Her 'Murder Most Unladylike' series has proved a real hit with 8-12 year olds. In The Guggenheim Mystery, we meet again with Ted Sparks, his sister Kat and their cousin Salim. Salim and Aunt Gloria are now living in New York, and Ted, Kat and their mum pay them a visit. Aunt Gloria works at the Guggenheim Museum, but there is a theft of a painting, and Aunt Gloria finds herself one of the main suspects. Ted and the gang decide to take it upon themselves to solve the mystery and prove Aunt Gloria's innocence.

While I enjoyed the book, and was glad to meet the characters from the first book, I wasn't completely hooked. I thought it was slightly over-long, and about three quarters of the way through I was just wanting it to end. I didn't completely engage with the peripheral characters, ie. the other possible suspects, and I got confused with who was who. The writing was definitely Robin's - she's great at building up a mystery, but perhaps because the characters weren't her own may have affected the overrall feel of the book, the tempo, and the engagement of myself as the reader.

Having said that, young fans of Robin's own work, of Enid Blyton, Helen Moss and Lauren St John will love trying to solve the mystery with Ted and his gang.

The author has picked up an idea from the sadly missed Siobhan Dowd and created a further adventure for the hero Ted Sparks. I loved this book and the mystery that the heroes had to unravel.

"My name is Ted Spark. I am 12 years and 281 days old. I have seven friends. Three months ago, I solved the mystery of how my cousin Salim disappeared from a pod on the London Eye. This is the story of my second mystery."

A Siobhan (Solace Of The Road, Bog Child, The London Eye Mystery) Dowd concept written by Robin (Murder Most Unladylike) Stevens? I am SO there. And while The Guggenheim Mystery inevitably lacks the period charm of Stevens' series, it's still a satisfyingly complex mystery for young readers aged 8-12, and featuring a pleasingly diverse cast of characters.

I read this with glee and excitement and a little bit of trepidation - could it really live up to The London Eye Mystery? It does. Ted is just as wonderfully realised as before and whilst the mystery isn't resolved as smartly the characters are wonderfully expanded and the plot is as kind hearted as before. The transition to New York (the title being Dowd's sole contribution) is so smart, I loved the cross city travels of London Eye and again here we mix tourist landmarks with residential areas. What an exciting piece of publishing.

It's time to dust off your dust jackets and remind yourself of the crime-solving abilities of Ted Spark, as titan of kidlit mysteries Robin Stevens has been tasked with writing a sequel. to Siobhan Dowd's The London Eye Mystery. While this can be read as a standalone, reading the first book will fill in backstory and explain references.

It may have been ten years for readers since Ted solved the mystery of how his cousin Salim got into a pod on the London Eye at 11.32 a.m. and vanished before it touched the ground again at 12.02, but for Ted it's only been three months. He's travelled to New York with his mother and sister to visit Salim and Aunt Gloria, who's now working at the world-famous Guggenheim Museum. Keeping the fan-favourites of the cast gives this story its core and several benefit from being fleshed out, particularly Kat, who's revealed as a budding fashion designer. Stevens adds plenty of minor characters of her own as suspects, however, and while there are probably too many (they aren't exactly memorable or compelling, efforts are made to subvert gender roles (such as having female characters in the museum's maintenance-construction crew) and it gives Ted lots of leads to chase.

The mystery of the title is an interesting one, as Ted, Kat and Salim race to solve an art heist. More than the eventual villain(s) or culprit(s) - you'll get no spoilers here - it's the puzzle of the mystery that catch the eye, as Ted works through the many possibilities of the theft. Ted is undoubtedly the driving force of this book. His direct, distinctive first-person narration is the most obvious continuation of The London Eye Mystery. It can be grating at times, particularly if you're used to a more subtle or woven prose, but Stevens embraces it entirely, while occasionally dropping in details that the reader will pick up outside of Ted's recognition. Everyone's a bit nicer, too, with more closeness and kindness in Ted's immediate family (mostly from Kat and their mother, as their father remains off-page in London). It's also worth noting that the diagnoses made in the first book have since fallen somewhat out of favour, though Stevens makes an effort to flex an established framework in order to focus on Ted's personality, talents and New York adventures. The book needed more complex secondary characters and the traditional detective-reveals-all speech still looks clunky in prose, but it undoubtedly sits squarely in upper children's fiction.

A more detailed version of this review will appear on my blog closer to publication.

Ted is someone who notices things, things other people don't.

When Ted and his family visit their Aunt Gloria in New York, a painting goes missing from the Guggenheim Museum - and Ted's cousin Salim is the chief suspect!

Ted must use the skills he honed before (in The London Eye mystery) and rely on the help of his prickly older sister Kat in order to solve the mystery, clear Salim - and Aunt Gloria - of the crime, and rescue the missing painting!

A wonderful adventure of a book, and an empathic look through the eyes of a boy with autism - perfect for fans of Wonder.