Illustrated by Peggy Collins
Pajama Press
978-1-77278-336-0
136 pp.
Ages 7-10
April 2025
Things are certainly exciting at the Biltmore, the residence that Elodie LaRue lives at on the Upper West Side in New York City. Who knew that after her first case, The Vanderhoff Heist, that there would be another mystery to solve at the Biltmore during the same summer? And her next would begin with a murder! (Just kidding. It's just a movie.)
The courtyard of the Biltmore has become a movie set for a film that features the most famous feline resident of the building. Bijou, the very wealthy heir to the fortune of fashion designer Lucien Saint Martin, lives in a swanky apartment with her nanny, Paula Benson, who has had to leave her family, notably her 10-year-old daughter Tiya, in Queens. While visiting her mom, Tiya is tasked with getting a driver and car to pick up Bijou at her pet grooming salon while Paula is busy prepping for Bijou's big eighth-birthday bash. But Tiya arrives late at Spaw and learns that Bijou has already been picked up. So, the child asks Elodie and her sidekick Oscar, an aspiring stuntman and magician, to find Bijou before the party that night.
The Biltmore has no shortage of suspects, from the regular residents like Mrs. Fineman and her noisy Pomeranian Lawrence, and Bianca Winthrop Parker Saint March, the niece of Bijou's cat daddy, to Freddy the doorman, and those associated with the movie, like the animal trainer, Bijou's agent, Bijou's biographer, and even stuntman Lance Beauregard. But Elodie and Oscar have to follow the clues, ask the right questions, and figure out the motive before they can catch the wrongdoer, hopefully before Paula finds out.
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From Mystery at the Biltmore: The Classified Catnapping, written by Colleen Nelson, illustrated by Peggy Collins |
Colleen Nelson keeps young readers guessing with each chapter focused on another character. She puts out a number of red herrings–including of the fishy variety–but always helps the reader see the logic in Elodie and Oscar's thinking, never surprising them with unfair plot elements. Colleen Nelson actually makes the mystery solvable as the story progresses, but you have to pay attention. Elodie does, and she is always able to figure out who did the crime.
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From Mystery at the Biltmore: The Classified Catnapping, written by Colleen Nelson, illustrated by Peggy Collins |
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Mystery at the Biltmore #1: The Vanderhoff Heist (2024)
Mystery at the Biltmore #2: The Classified Catnapping (April, 2025)
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