Castle Rock Mystery Crew: The Jase Files by Vicky McClure and Kim Curran

Title: Castle Rock Mystery Crew: The Jase Files

Author: Vicky McClure and Kim Curran

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Published: 1^st December 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 400

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: Meet Jase, Tyrone, Kinga, Harri and Sherlock the Dog.

10-year-old Jase is spending the summer holidays at the Castle Rock Caravan Park with his auntie and grandma, who has dementia. Expecting to be totally bored, he meets three other curious, brave, funny kids and together they solve the mystery of a series of thefts happening across the site. The finger of blame has started pointing at the children. They must find the true culprit to clear their names and see justice done! A warm-hearted, laugh-out-loud, twisty mystery with an authentic, kind depiction of a relative with dementia at its heart.

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Jase is heading off to Castle Rock Caravan Park for the summer holidays – but with his auntie and grandmother, a former police detective who now has dementia. Jase has prepared for a summer of boredom, but on his first day there, he meets three kids at the local arcade. Tyrone, whose parents are from Jamaica, Harri, who has ADHD and Kinga. These three kids are curious, brave and funny – and known as the Castle Rock Crew, a group of friends who get together every summer and solve mysteries. Jase is welcomed into the group warmly, and they are soon embroiled in a mystery.

Things have been going missing throughout the caravan park – earrings, money, Harri’s Switch, a camera, and other items. Soon, everyone at the park starts to blame the kids at the caravan park, so Jase and his new friends decide to solve the mystery, and with help from Nana, who tells them all about her crime solving days, they find a way to work out who has been taking the items – but it’s not quite who they expected.

In this joyous story filled with heart and humour, a mystery that would make the Famous Five proud, and an authentic depiction of what is it like to live with someone with dementia, this new novel evokes a sense of justice and fun.

As a reader, I love mystery books of many kinds – each one has something unique, whether it is a character, theme, or setting. I have been reading mysteries in some way or form since I was a kid – the Emily Rodda Teen Power Inc books, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series, and as an adult – Dinuka McKenzie’s Kate Miles books, anything by Sulari Gentill, and an array of others. Of course, I am drawn to books by women and diverse books that feature all sorts of characters, and this book had a bit of everything. Written by Vicky McClure in collaboration with Kim Curran, this new series feels like The Famous Five for a new generation – the same concept of four kids solving mysteries on their holidays, but with a unique twist and diversity in many ways – race, gender, health – and that’s just what I came across in the first book. What makes it stand out is that these are friends, not family, and they’re open and supportive of each other. They’re modern but they embrace older technology and ways of doing things that ensure the ingenuity of the mystery novel works well.

Modern day technology is used in conjunction with old school ways of doing things as Jase, Tyrone, Harri and Kinga have to find ways to get around doing things that would be easier if they were police or adults, and for me, this worked well. It showed that there are ways to do things in this genre for the modern day that means things don’t happen too easily – something I have read mystery novelists writing about and how to make it work so the case isn’t solved too quickly or too easily. It’s why, at least in adult crime thrillers, closed room mysteries have become quite popular, removing an element of something that would mean a case would be easily solved. I loved that this felt like a Famous Five story without being one as well – it was unique enough that it won’t be compared to the well-known series, so it will stand on its own well and find an audience who will fall in love with it. I’m enjoying seeing these new series come out – and whilst the books don’t come out with the frequency that several middle grade series I read did, they still have that element of growing a fanbase and capturing the imagination that Goosebumps, Animorphs, and the Babysitters Club did. Everything in this book was carefully planned out, carefully placed and used to enhance the plot and pull things together effectively to create a brilliant start to the series.