Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery by Li Chen

Title: Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery

Author: Li Chen

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: Penguin Australia

Published: 2^nd June 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 208

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: Enjoy this new DETECTIVE BEANS adventure in the bestselling and award-winning graphic novel series by Li Chen!

Your favourite kitten detective is back with a new mystery to solve . . . and treasure to find!

When Captain Scuttlebeard gives Beans a treasure map, Beans is determined to find the prize at the end. The clues take him all over Cat Town – to places he doesn’t expect! With Biscuits by his side, and with help from some other familiar faces, can Beans find the treasure . . . and get home in time to clean up his room?

DETECTIVE BEANS AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING HAT was WINNER of the Best Junior Fiction book at the New Zealand Book Awards in 2025!

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Detective Beans is back with a new mystery…and a bedroom to clean! Beans is a kitten detective with a penchant for getting into mischief and not always doing what his mum wants him to. He loves solving mysteries in Cat Town. This time, Beans and Biscuits are going to team up to solve another daring mystery and find some treasure!

Anything to get out of cleaning his room, right? Beans is pulled into a treasure hunt by Captain Scuttlebeard, following clues all over Cat Town. He needs to find the treasure, find his mum’s missing parcel, and get home in time to clean his room. Can it be done?

Read on and see what Beans gets up to as he traverses the town, its fair and the library to find the treasure he thinks will make up for everything. This is the third book in the series, and it was a lot of fun, as Beans is th4 perfect balance of being able to do what he wants, whilst also having to face the reality of being a child. It’s also about friendship, as Beans and Biscuit work together, with Biscuit as the moral guide almost, the responsible one trying to guide Beans as she helps him, or at least tries to help him be responsible.

The exciting thing in this book is the treasure and the treasure hunt. What kid hasn’t wanted to go and search for treasure at some point and imagined what it might be? This makes the book such fun to read, a joy and equal parts exciting and relaxing, because I got the sense that there was always a sense of safety within this story, a certainty that everything will work out eventually. It is comforting to read a book like this, and whilst I don’t read many graphic novels, I felt that this was one of the ones I have been able to follow the best, as the layout was clear which helped develop the story.

What a fun book, filled with adventure and friendship, ambiguous and nefarious characters and an unexpected treasure. Such a great addition to the series, and my first adventure with Beans and Biscuit, who are delightfully fun characters that I think readers will continue to love and what a great way to introduce the mystery genre to younger readers.