By the author of E.T., and patterned after Sherlock Holmes, this is a collection of five detective stories with an all-insect cast of characters. Follow Inspector Mantis, of brilliant mind, supersensitive antennae, and iron grip, and his faithful sidekick Doctor Hopper, an accomplished violinist and long-jumper, along with a bevy of buggy bandits, as they solve entomological cases with clever sleuthing.
Going forth from his little cottage at 221B Flea Street, Inspector Mantis, accompanied by his trusted colleague Doctor Hopper, solves “The Case of the Missing Butterfly,” “The Case of the Caterpillar’s Head,” and three other antennae-bending mysteries puzzling the populace of Victorian Bugland. Criminal detection, combined entomology, makes this, in the words of The Horn Book, “the most engaging and cleverest reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson yet.” Joe Servello’s color and pen-&-ink drawings bring exquisite period detail to these tales: steam engines, deerstalkers, fog, and mandibles have never been more lovingly crosshatched.
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