Decima Blake has appeared on Linda’s Book Bag a couple of times when we’ve been chatting about about her novels Hingston’s Box in a post you’ll find here and Hingston’s Mispers here. Today, however, I’m realising what a talented individual Decima is as I review her latest book Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief which is both written and illustrated by Decima. My enormous thanks to her for sending me a copy in return for an honest review.

Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief is published today, 28th April 2022, by Pegasus Books and is available for purchase through the links here.

Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief

Detective Dachshund of Battersea Police wears a smart blue hat and a matching fleece. He has boundless energy for fighting crime, but his detective skills, sadly, are far from sublime.

Now, Detective Dachshund one night was told, to catch a fluffy thief who was sneaky and bold.

The thief went by the name of Clawdius Cat… and should our detective trust Reece the Rat?

Wanted posters showed the cat’s cheeky face, blowing raspberries from lamp posts all over the place!

Officers had already scoured the city… how could Detective Dachshund find this bad kitty?

My Review of Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief

Detective Dachshund has a new case to solve.

Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief is a smashing children’s book that works on many levels so that it can be enjoyed by all ages. Young children will enjoy the story as a simple adventure alongside the brilliant illustrations, with the cadences of rhyme and rhythm drawing them in to the narrative. There’s some lovely humour like grease on a drainpipe that will appeal too.

Slightly older readers will find even more to enjoy and I can see Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief being used in classrooms to exemplify rhymes, homophones and a varied vocabulary because Decima Blake introduces new and unfamiliar words in an accessible context. I though this was an excellent aspect of the text.

The illustrations are brilliant and this makes Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief appealing to reluctant readers. As the narrative is written in rhyming couplets, it also means there isn’t too much text for struggling readers to encounter at any one time. I thoroughly appreciated the correct use of speech marks within the rhyming couplets too as an exemplar to emergent writers. I’d love to see the book used as a stimulus for drama with children acting it out as a play for a real audience because I think its balance of simplicity and excitement would lend itself very well.

I thought the themes of Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief were pitch-perfect for any age group. Decima Blake exemplifies that all is not always as it seems, that team work can give excellent results and that just because something isn’t easy it doesn’t mean it’s worth giving up. These are valuable life lessons.

Add in the fact that some of the royalties from Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief will be donated to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Great stuff.

About Decima Blake

Decima Blake, author of the Hingston series, has a long-standing interest in child protection and is deeply passionate about child victims of crime. Hingston: Smoke and Mispers is the second in the series, following Hingston’s Box which was published in 2016. Decima combines historical research, accurate police procedure and a touch of spookiness to provide readers with an immersive experience as they join Hingston on his race to solve cases involving missing persons and murder. A percentage of royalties are donated to the charity Embrace Child Victims of Crime.

Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief is written and illustrated by Decima Blake. She created Detective Dachshund to entertain audiences of all ages with humorous stories and to inspire young readers to explore the fun of writing in rhyme. A percentage of royalties will be donated to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

For more information about Decima, follow her on Twitter @decimablake and Instagram or find her on Goodreads.