What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
Deadline for McGurk
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. YA Mystery series from the 70s/80s, suburban kids solving crimes in their neighborhood. [s]
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I am pretty sure that you are talking about the Mcgurk series by E W Hildick...one of my all time favourites!!!
The Nose Knows by E.W. Hildick is the first book in the McGurk Mystery Series suggested by Taffeta.But the book with the "cuit" clue is The Case of the Secret Scribbler.
It's available on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/caseofsec...
Several of the other books in the series are also available (https://archive.org/search.php?query=...). You need to be a member to borrow books, but membership is free; you only need to give them an email address.
Ha, solved! Thanks, that's been bugging me for a while now.It is indeed the McGurk series and the one book I remembered was The Case of the Secret Scribbler. After seeing the hardcover illustration I knew for sure that was the one. I'll have to see if my local library has a copy.
That one must have been my favorite from the series, it's frankly amazing to me that I remember anything at all about it after ~35 years.
I think I was mixing up some details from another book in the series re: the new girl in the group. After skimming the summaries of some of the other books, I believe I was remembering a later installment where Wanda (one of the OG members of the group) had a Japanese pen pal who moved to the US and joined up with them.
Thanks again. Good work, gumshoes.
Foobie wrote: "Ha, solved! Thanks, that's been bugging me for a while now."Great — glad you found your book!
I am honoured to interact with A Hildick fan!!
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What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Deadline for McGurk (other topics)The Case of the Secret Scribbler (other topics)
The Nose Knows (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
E.W. Hildick (other topics)E.W. Hildick (other topics)
I've checked some of the common children's mystery series from that time and none of them ring a bell. Definitely not the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown etc.
The group of detectives was made up of maybe 4 or 5 kids. They would have been maybe 12 or 13 years old at the oldest, I think. Probably younger.
I remember some plot points and characters from one book in particular. This book was written in first person, the main character/narrator was a normal boy, kind of an everyman character, not a genius like Encyclopedia Brown or anything like that. The stories weren't supernatural at all, the mysteries were rooted in the real world.
Some details I remember from one of the books, there was a major plot point (the key to solving the mystery, as I remember) revolving around a scrap of paper that said "CUIT". I remember the kids assuming it was part of the word "biscuit", but it turned out to be "circuit". It had to do with the villain's plan to disable an alarm system, or something like that.
There was a part of the book where the kids were all given a polygraph test. Maybe one of the kids' parents was a police officer? They weren't being investigated or interrogated, it was a demonstration of how a polygraph worked.
The main character/narrator failed the polygraph on simple questions, he talked about how nervous he was, how he was sweating profusely. He failed on true answers like his own name and address, etc.
There was a girl in the group who was able to lie and pass the polygraph, the needles never moved past the "normal" range even when the person giving her the test tried to pressure her.
The rest of the group had normal results with the polygraph, passing on the true questions and failing on the lies. As I recall, this polygraph business was another key part of the plot, as it tied back to the villain of the story being able to pass a polygraph at some point.
As I recall, the girl character was relatively new to the group. Like maybe she had just moved into the house next to the main character and the rest of the group didn't fully trust her at first, but she ended up proving herself and being a key part of solving this one particular mystery.
That's most of what I can remember about that one book. I do remember it was part of a series and the group of detectives had given themselves a name that I think the book series was named after.
Hopefully this rings a bell for someone!