BOOK EIGHT IS HERE!!!

Eeek! Mrs. Brisbane is missing and Humphrey hasn’t got a clue what happened to her.

And that’s not the only mystery Humphrey has to solve. There’s the Case of the Baffling Ballerina, the Case of the Wandering Watch and the Case of the Creepy Classroom, among many others!

Yes, after what seems like an unsqueakably long wait, the eighth book in the According to Humphrey series, Mysteries According to Humphrey, is now available in the U.S.!  (Available in hardcover. In the U.S., the books come out in hardcover first and then in paperback approximately a year later.) Fans in the U.K. got the book early, back in January, but the two countries have very different publishing schedules.

This book follows School Days According to Humphrey (now in paperback) and is the second book featuring the “new” class in Room 26. So if you haven’t met Forgetful-Phoebe, Just-Joey, Be-Careful-Kelsey and Hurry-Up-Harry – now’s the time! And although it’s released in June, it takes place around Halloween.

I’m particularly excited about this book because I have thought about using this title for a long time. For one thing, Humphrey routinely solves little “mysteries” about human behavior, such as why Sayeh never spoke in  class (World), whether a frog and a hamster can be friends (Friendship) and why was an alien from outer space was cleaning Room 26 (Surprises). But the other reason I liked the title is that I’ve long been a big fan of mysteries. Over several decades I have gone through all the Agatha Christie, Nero Wolfe, Maigret, Rumpole (not technically mysteries, I guess) and #1 Ladies Detective Agency, to name a few. My very favorites are Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and P.D. James. I haven’t just read them – I have read them over and over. As both child and adult, I’ve always been a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. (To read more about my relationship with Homes, click here.) So I’m HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY that both the U.S. and the U.K. featured Humphrey in a deerstalker cap.

As a child, I was a big Nancy Drew fan, of course.

And one of my favorite books which I also reread many times was called Mystery at the Little Red Schoolhouse by Helen Fuller Orton.  In fact, I might read it again today!