• Age: 8 to 12
• Grade: 3 to 7

“…Lyall’s debut is a winner.” —Publishers Weekly

“What’s with the get-up? Is that the company uniform or something?”
“This? All P.I.s wear a trench coat.”
“Dude, that’s a brown bathrobe.”
I shrugged and straightened out my sleeves. “First rule of private investigation, Ivy: work with what you’ve got.”

Twelve-year-old Howard Wallace lives by his list of rules of private investigation. He knows more than anyone how to work with what he’s got: a bathrobe for a trench coat, a makeshift office behind the school equipment shed, and not much else—least of all, friends. So when a hot case of blackmail lands on his desk, he’s ready to take it on himself . . . until the new kid, Ivy Mason, convinces him to take her on as a junior partner. As they banter through stakeouts and narrow down their list of suspects, Howard starts to wonder if having Ivy as a sidekick—and a friend—is such a bad thing after all.
Named a Book Riot middle-grade book for the summer with special recommendation for reluctant readers!
Winner of the Red Cedar Book Award for Fiction!

Casey Lyall is the author of Gnome Is Where Your Heart Is, the acclaimed picture book A Spoonful of Frogs, illustrated by Vera Brosgol, and the popular Howard Wallace, PI series. She lives in southwestern Ontario, Canada, where she also works at her local library.

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