Harper Madigan: Junior High Private Eye

By: Chelsea M. Campbell

Narrated by: Nicholas Vennekotter

Seventh-grade detective Harper Madigan works alone. He doesn't need the vice principal assigning him a new partner to keep him in line, especially a stuffed-shirt wannabe-journalist. And he especially doesn't need his troublemaker ex-girlfriend showing up out the blue and asking for his help. She's accused of attacking the star of the school musical, and with her less-than-sparkling track record, she's only one suspension away from getting expelled.

Only Harper believes she's innocent, and now it's up to him to prove it, even if it means making an enemy of the PTA mafia, risking his agency, and facing the mistakes of his own dark past. But when his new partner insists on doing everything by the book, and his old nemesis - the one bully he can't catch - starts harassing his clients, it's going to take more than just detective work to solve the case.

©2012 Chelsea M. Campbell (P)2013 Chelsea M. Campbell

Fantastic

Great story that is well written. Aimed at middle readers this is one I wouldn’t mind hearing more from, loved the few twists at the end

A Noir-style detective story in a middle school

Harper Madigan runs a detective agency, complete with his own trench coat, at his school, complete with his own "office" and office hours, and a carte blanche hall pass that allows him to complete his investigations. His hard-hitting cases involve things like the case of the stolen lucky pencil. But Harper's been a little down on his luck recently and the vice principal has assigned Austin Phelps, a prospective reporter, to be his partner. But Harper Madigan works alone.

This book is written in a noir style but altered for the middle school/junior high level, and it kicks off with Danigal coming to Harper because she's being accused of assaulting the lead in the school play. She swears she's innocent, but her record in the past year has been less-than-stellar and if she gets suspended one more time, she'll be suspended. And the PTA wants her suspended. Which means Harper has his work cut out for him.

For a detective story, this one is fairly straightforward. There are a few twists, but they aren't particularly crazy ones, and it was pretty easy to predict what would happen next. Despite that, the story was good, and it would still be a good story for middle-school readers.

In typical Noir style, most of the characters are pretty stereotypical, including Harper. The one character that I could say didn't fit into that was Harper's partner, Austin Phelps. He goes from definite mole to sort-of partner to traitor and ultimately ends up as a friend. I enjoyed Austin as a character. Though I know there aren't any sequels to this book, and no more cases for Harper to solve, I would definitely read another one should Campbell decide to write another one.

For this book, I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Nicholas Vennekotter. His narration wasn't really anything to write home about, it also wasn't terrible.