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The Beginning

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Meet Karrine, a clever, witty twelve-year-old with her own detective agency. "No job is too big" is her motto. In Dognapped, Karrine scours the city to find the beloved stolen pet of a kind older woman. In the Magical Disappearing Act, a magician's assistant disappears, and it's up to Karrine to solve the mystery. In The Painted Ponies, Karrine, along with her quirky cousin, Jayden, who has come for a summer visit, must discover who would want to paint all the ponies in Mr. Jackson's stable. I our final story, The Body, Karrine will face her biggest challenge yet as she mishandles a murder investigation. Can she recover her dignity and solve the crime, before all the clues go cold.

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First published July 9, 2014

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About the author

Victoria Schwimley

20 books84 followers
I am a reader and an author. I love entertaining people with stories that are rich with characters. When I'm not writing or reading, you can find me sewing. I love to visit the ocean or the forest and would prefer to camp out in a cabin over a hotel room. I highly value my readers, and I very much a family person.

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
Profile Image for Tammy.
72 reviews1 follower
April 8, 2019
"Meet Karrine, a clever, witty twelve-year-old with her own detective agency. "No job is too big" is her motto. In Dognapped, Karrine scours the city to find the beloved stolen pet of a kind older woman. In the Magical Disappearing Act, a magician's assistant disappears, and it's up to Karrine to solve the mystery. In The Painted Ponies, Karrine, along with her quirky cousin, Jayden, who has come for a summer visit, must discover who would want to paint all the ponies in Mr. Jackson's stable. I our final story, The Body, Karrine will face her biggest challenge yet as she mishandles a murder investigation. Can she recover her dignity and solve the crime, before all the clues go cold."



My 8 year old daughter and I listened to this while driving. We both enjoyed it. My daughter has recently become interested in mysteries and enjoyed trying to figure out the mysteries. We enjoyed the story and the narration. I wondered whether the talk of dead bodies and autopsies in the last story, The Body, would disturb her with the but it didn't seem to.
Profile Image for Devi.
790 reviews40 followers
August 20, 2015
Check out the complete review at Views she Writes - WordPress Reviews

Karrine is a 12 year old, very inquisitive girl, who has a knack of solving puzzles, and therefore, local mysteries. Teamed with her 8 year old cousin Jayden, Karrine goes around her neighbourhood solving all kinds of mysteries, whether she is hired to do it or not. The book is a compilation of number of stories. All the stories are light hearted and fun. However, the helpful mind of Karrine is something to be appreciated. Irrespective of whether someone asks her help or not, she is always ready to help and also to complete the task taken irrespective of the difficulty involved.

The book is for Young Adults. It is on the similar lines of Famous Five or Secret Seven by Enid Blyton, except those stories were a little bit more intense than this one. Crime Solver’s Detective Agency is a light hearted novel with ample humour to keep the audience entertained. It should be read by all.
Profile Image for Robin Rowles.
Author 5 books66 followers
August 11, 2019
My review is on the audio-book version of this story:

This was an entertaining audio book. Karrine, the twelve-year-old crime detective, is a really cool character!
There are four different stories to be enjoyed. The narrator, Stefanie Paige delivered a powerful performance. Indeed, I thought her performance was upbeat, and she portrayed the stories with lots of energy and enthusiasm.

Overall, the stories are modern and ideal for the younger generation. There's quite a lot of humour, as well.

What's not cool, about being a twelve-year-old crime detective!

Just one caution; fiction, detective or not, still needs to be believable and realistic. I feel that some of the scenarios are borderline, in this respect. But nevertheless, it is still very good and most entertaining!
I enjoyed listening to this creative and humorous audio-book. Good fun!
Profile Image for Jane Blythe.
Author 118 books1,365 followers
March 16, 2016
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was a fun collection of mysteries for 8-12 year olds. The main character is a spunky twelve year old who is extremely dedicated to her crime solving business. I have to say that I thought each little mystery story was better than the one before it, my favourite being the last one about the body at the water park! I thought the endings to each mystery story were fun and creative, characters were unique and amusing (particularly the dog owner!), and I preferred the mysteries where Karrine worked with her little cousin, Jayden, as I thought the characters played well off each other. I would have preferred a tad more "adventure" and to have seen Karrine get into some trouble she has to work her way out of! All in all a nicely written, fast paced, engaging mystery for kids!
Profile Image for E.M. McIntyre.
Author 3 books24 followers
August 28, 2015
This is a fun collection of 4 short mysteries suitable for young to middle grade readers. 12-yr old Karrine and her younger cousin, Jayden, solve mysteries around Karrine's neighborhood. I am far from a young reader, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it to any parent looking for a clean, age-appropriate story for their child.
Profile Image for Lune Spark.
27 reviews16 followers
September 14, 2016
This book reminded me of a famous TV series where four kids had their own detective agency. This is a very cute book with interesting cases the cute detectives have pursued :). I like the light read and gave it to my 14 years old niece and she loved it a lot as well. I recommend this for the kids of age 8 - 16 years.
Profile Image for Laura.
3,205 reviews348 followers
August 31, 2015
Wonderful mini mysteries for ages six to twelve, featuring a self employed twelve year old female detective, Karrine, who is tall and has saucer-sized eyes. With the help of her eight year old cousin, Jayden, who is visiting Las Vegas for the summer, and Mr. Scoops (not his real name) the owner of the local ice cream parlor, they track down clues and puzzle out solutions. The cases reminded me of Scooby Doo and the detective herself is part Nancy Drew with a lot of Dennis the Menace.

The first mystery, which Karrine must solve by herself, involves a missing dog. Not a cute, loveable friendly neighborhood dog, but one that others wish would remain missing. So Karrine does not get much help with clues other than she is looking for a "pink lady."
The second mystery has everyone talking. During a local magic show, the assistant really disappeared!
This is where we see more of Karrine's fine negotiating skills at work.

Jayden arrives in time to help with the third mystery - painted ponies. Spencer Jackson's stable is a popular place for parties and activities but with all the ponies painted the same color, it is a quandary.
Will young cousin Jayden have good ideas to help solve the mystery or will she be in the way and cause trouble?
Is it someone upset about not being included with a birthday party invitation?

The fourth mystery has a lot of Dennis the Menace "esq-ness." When the girls believe one of Karrine's classmates has been murdered, perhaps for not inviting someone to her party, and they feel the police are not doing enough to solve the case (100% cozy amateur sleuth mindset) "We'd better get to the bottom of this. It looks as if the police could use our help." While trying to help theya re nearly scared to death at the morgue by a mask wearing man with an electric saw! I wonder if Jayden will ever be abck to visit again.

The last mystery may be too scary for some younger readers. It is a good book that parents will enjoy reading along with their children. I look forward to reading the adventures in the next epsodes.
I did receive a copy from the author in exchange for an unbased read for review.
I will be recommending her work to librarians and teachers who teach reading to the appropriate age groups.
It also does a good job of beginning critical thinking exercises and discussions of ethics.



Profile Image for Reese Hogan.
Author 6 books43 followers
September 6, 2015
Crime Solver’s Detective Agency is a charming little collection of stories that follow 12-year-old Karrine through a series of mysteries and misunderstandings in her hometown. There are some really funny scenes along the way, such as the who’s-on-first style conversations Karrine gets into when trying to correct people’s grammar. The story about the painted ponies was my favorite. Quick and lighthearted, this book is perfect for young readers between 10 and 13 years old.
815 reviews6 followers
March 28, 2015
The ideas in this book we're okay but I was not a fan of the execution. It was divided in four separate mysteries. In my opinion, I never connected with any characters and the mysteries seemed very random. There are also typos like on pg 118.

I received this book for free through goodreads first read giveaway .
Profile Image for Marco Marek.
Author 7 books62 followers
September 3, 2016
A nice book for teens, Karrine runs a crime solvers agency and like assistant she has Jayden, her cousin, in two of her four cases. Karrine lives in Las Vegas and she loves her city, but she always ready for new exciting action. She is involved to solve crimes with a stolen dog, magical disappearing act, painted ponies, and to find out who killed Cassandra. Was a good read, I enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews

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