The Scripture Sleuth

Concord Cunningham Mysteries #1

by Mat Halverson

It has been said that one can find the answers to all of life's mysteries in the Bible. The Word of God is sufficient to meet all our needs. Finding the answers requires at least a basic knowledge of the Bible. The concordance is a topical index of key words that lead a scholar to appropriate Bible verses. It is a valuable tool to finding answers in the Word of God.Concord Cunningham is a boy who has discovered this tool and uses it to solve mysteries in his community. His success brings him acclaim, and a reputation as a Scripture Sleuth. Readers will be challenged to solve the mysteries without the advantage of a concordance, but Concord Cunningham will reveal the source of the answer in Scripture. This is the first of a series.

Genres: Christian Fiction, Childrens, Christian, Fiction, Mystery

95 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Karina (Karina's Christian Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Number of pages: 78 pages of stories, but the solutions end on page 91

Genre: Children’s fiction

Series: Book #1 of the Scripture Sleuth series

Age recommendation: 8-12

Summary: What happens when a home is robbed, a vault is broken into, and contests are allegedly sabotaged? Concord Cunningham is on the case! With his concordance-like knowledge of the Bible, Concord has a verse to crack even the toughest cases!

My thoughts: Four words: Encyclopedia Brown, Christian edition. No, seriously, it is pretty much exactly the same setting, characters and even story plots. Not literally copied or anything, but so similar that if you took out the Christian stuff, it could be an Encyclopedia Brown story.
I used to LOVE the Encyclopedia Brown books, so when I saw that my brother got basically the Christian version for Christmas, I was so excited to read it. Let me tell you, it does not disappoint. The stories are kind of dumb, but exactly what I expected (if you’re the right age group for the books you either won’t realize how ridiculous the situations are, or simply won’t care). There is also a Bible verse to go with every story which I would recommend looking up because it’s more fun that way (I looked them all up). I don’t think it’s necessarily better than Encyclopedia Brown; it might be less violent (avoids punching/fighting or stuff like that) and it encourages young children to learn/memorize Bible verses so that is good. Other than that I’d say it’s basically the same: just a bunch of fun, interesting mysteries that make you feel very smart when you solve them.

My personal rating: 4/5 stars for me right now, but if I were 8-12 years old then I would say 5/5 stars.

Link to blog: https://karinaschristianreads.wordpre...

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute concept! I think boys about 2nd-6th grade would like this book. At the end of each short mystery, the reader is asked to look up a Bible verse. The Bible verse gives a clue to solving the mystery. The mysteries were clever enough that, even as an adult, I wanted to know what happened.

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute stories that are similar to Encyclopedia Brown stories. The reader must guess the answer to the mystery before turning to the back of the book for the ending to the story. Bible verses are given for the reader to look up if they need additional clues. The stories are simple so even younger grades will be able to have fun trying to solve the mysteries.

[Linda]

This is a fun book. You can’t take it too seriously. But it gives a nice challenge to figure out what happened. Looking up Bible verses for a clue I was always amazed there was a verse that applied. Good practice moving within the Bible. Even though it is for kids it was fun and many times provided a great challenge for me to figure it out.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids really enjoyed this book. They liked looking up the verses in the Bible to figure out the mystery.

[Vivi · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter (9yo) liked it and asked me to get more of the series. It reminded her of "Encyclopedia Brown", the series she loved.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book contains twelve mysteries, which Concord solves using Scripture. It's an easy read that young readers will enjoy.

[Katrina Mast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating idea and witty writing style, but also manages to feel rather cheesy.

[Whitney Bougher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun family read aloud. Mystery + Bible knowledge = great evening reading with the kids before bed.

[Star Shining Forever · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the Encyclopedia Brown series of kids mysteries, but has a Christian twist. The Bible verses provided as clues give away the solution, so don't look at them if you want to figure it out on your own.

In this book, Concord mainly solves mysteries for his family and friends.

[isaac palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

this has to be the first of many concord books to be read.

[Laura The Book Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read these stories with our devotions. They are interesting, bitesize, and make us think logically.