The Cookie Thief

Every detective remembers their first case. Gus Delgado's started at 3:14 on a Tuesday, exactly eleven seconds after he bit into what should have been the greatest gingersnap of his entire life. Gus is ten years old and a private detective. His office is a card table in his garage. His rates are reasonable. His methods are flawless. His trench coat is actually his dad's old bathrobe with the belt tied twice around, but in this business you work with what you've got. With his partners — June Nakamura, who takes notes on everything (she once took notes on a sandwich), and Ruby Okafor, age eight, motivated in all areas of life by snacks — Gus runs the Crumb-Catchers Detective Agency. And the agency has its biggest case yet: six Gingersnap Gems, three-time defending champions of the Butterfield Bake-Off, vanished from the bake sale table in under sixty seconds, in a room full of two hundred people, and nobody saw a thing. Suspects, squirrels, and snickerdoodles. Operation Stakeout. The Great Cookie Payback. Justice — served with milk. A hilarious, big-hearted kids' mystery about friendship, fairness, and the sacred duty of guarding the cookie jar.