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The Curse of the Ancient Mask. Simon Cheshire
Читать онлайн.Название The Curse of the Ancient Mask
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781848122574
Автор произведения Simon Cheshire
Серия Saxby Smart: Private Detective
Издательство Ingram
Praise for Saxby Smart
‘Talk about being involved in a book! Sharp reads written in a lively and snappy style.’
Liverpool Echo
‘Wise-cracking, engaging style, reminiscent of the Sherlock Holmes stories, so that the reader is expected to act as Watson.’
School Librarian
‘If you have a boy who is losing enthusiasm for books, try tempting him with Saxby Smart . . . It is hard not to be engaged.’
Daily Mail
First published in Great Britain in 2007
by Piccadilly Press Ltd,
5 Castle Road, London NW1 8PR
Text copyright © Simon Cheshire, 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the copyright owner.
The right of Simon Cheshire to be identified as Author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978 185340 943 1 (paperback)
eISBN-13: 978 184812 257 4
5 7 9 10 8 6 4
Printed in the UK by CPI Bookmarque, Croydon CR0 4TD
Cover design and illustration by Patrick Knowles
CONTENTS
CASE FILE ONE: THE CURSE OF THE ANCIENT MASK
CASE FILE TWO: THE MARK OF THE PURPLE HOMEWORK
CASE FILE THREE: THE CLASP OF DOOM
CASE FILE ONE:
THE CURSE OF THE ANCIENT MASK
CHAPTER ONE
MY NAME IS SAXBY SMART, and I’m a private detective. I go to St Egbert’s School, my office is in the garden shed, and these are my case files. Unlike some detectives, I don’t have a sidekick, so that part I’m leaving up to you – pay attention, I’ll ask questions.
My full name is Saxby Doyle Christie Chandler Ellin Allan Smart. Yes, believe it or not, I’m named after all my dad’s favourite crime writers. The Allan is from Edgar Allan Poe. I mean, even my dad wouldn’t call his kid Poe Smart! Mind you, he called me Saxby Smart . . . (Saxby isn’t a crime writer, by the way, Saxby is apparently a ye olde English name, originally pillaged from the Vikings.)
Dad is a great fan of crime fiction, and ever since I could read I’ve worked my way through his library of great detective stories. He has an impressive collection. It was all those stories that made me want to be a detective in the first place. I loved them just as much as he does. Which, I guess, is another reason I’m beginning my case files here: to show you that I can be just as good a sleuth as Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple.
You might think my dad was a detective himself, but actually he’s a bus driver. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a bus driver. In fact, he loves being a bus driver. And I love him being a bus driver, because it means all the local bus drivers know me, and that’s very useful when you’re a schoolboy detective trying to get around town following clues.
What I mean is that he only reads detective stories. I live them.
My mum? She programs computer games for a living. She works from home and spends all day in her office, which is the cupboard under the stairs. And that’s all there is to say, really.
I only mention my parents at all to let you know that I’ve got some. They play no part in any of my great cases, and won’t be appearing much in these pages.
This is the story of my first really interesting case. Up to that point, I’d dealt with quite easy stuff: The Adventure of the Misplaced Action Figure, or The Case of the Eaten Biscuits are examples from my files which come to mind. But The Curse of the Ancient Mask was something altogether more puzzling. What made it interesting was that I wrapped up the whole case using only a plastic bucket full of water.
It started one very hot Saturday, and I was in my Crime Headquarters. I call it my Crime