Death at the Lighthouse [Montgomery Bonbon]
by Alasdair Beckett-King; illus. by Claire Powell
Intermediate    Candlewick    304 pp.
2/25    9781536241648    $18.99
Paper ed.  9781536241655    $9.99
e-book ed.  9781536241808    $9.99

Bonnie Montgomery, the protagonist of this romp, is an ordinary ten-year-old English girl with best-friend problems, a fear of heights, and a kindly grandfather. However, in her alter ego as a (rather short) detective, she is Montgomery Bonbon, complete with false moustache, trench coat, and a French-adjacent accent. In this, her second case (following Murder at the Museum), she travels to Odde Island, where she tackles the recent murder of a lighthouse keeper. Another suspicious death complicates matters. More cerebral detective than action hero, Bonbon uses logic and clever fact-gathering to sort out who is keeping a secret, who is lying, who has a motive, and who’s smuggling onions onto the island (they are banned). But it’s not all little gray cells either, as a final scene has Bonbon confronting the murderer at the top of the lighthouse during a thunderstorm. Silly in the best British sense, this adventure provides the reader with many treats, chief among them an unrelenting series of epic similes. “‘Whaddya want?’ rumbled a voice like a sackful of gravel in a tumble dryer.” The book design—with its caricature-rich illustrations, page decorations, and a variety of dapper typefaces—suits the wacky, parodic, genially satirical tone to a T.

From the ">May/June 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.