The Missing Masterpiece

Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam are the world's most useless burglars, and their new master plan for a robbery is going hopelessly wrong! Will their neighbours catch them red-handed? Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam are two hapless robber dogs who can never seem to fill their swag bags. They've tried the bank, the bookshop, the bike shop . . . and even a plot to rob their neighbours is foiled! But when they decide on a career change and open up a café they realize that, although crime doesn't pay, cupcakes certainly do! Join the fun in this hilarious rhyming picture book adventure. Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam is a hugely successful, action-packed series about two baker-dogs who used to be robbers, but now solve mysteries and sniff out crimes! Tracey Corderoy is a multi-award-winning author and has written over 70 books for children including collaborations with Rosalind Beardshaw and Sarah Massini. Steven Lenton has created many books with Tracey Corderoy and also illustrates books by David Baddiel, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Peter Bently. His books have won awards such as the Sainsbury's Children's Book Award and have been selected for the WHSmith Children's Book of the Year and Tom Fletcher Book Club. Every Nosy Crow paperback picture book comes with a free "Stories Aloud" audio recording. Just scan the QR code and listen along! Read all the Shifty and Sam picture book adventures: Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat Burglar Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Diamond Chase Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Missing Masterpiece Have you read Shifty and Sam's two-colour early readers? Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Jingle Bells! Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Up, Up and Away! Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Spooky School Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Aliens Are Coming!

Handsome cat William finds himself at the centre of mysterious case when famous masterpiece The Mona Cheesa is stolen from a Parisian gallery. Who could be responsible for the theft? Can William put the mysterious clues together in time? Fans of Helen Hancocks' Penguin in Peril won't be disappointed with this hilarious tale of cat and mouse.

When thieves raid the house of a neighbour, Emily, Jack and Scott are ready to investigate. But, strangely, the neighbour doesn't seem to want the thieves to be caught! The burglars didn't escape with much this time but could the raid be connected to a much older crime involving millions of pounds? The friends begin to uncover the truth, but are they leading themselves into serious danger? Mystery, menace and adventure await in the fourth book of this gripping new series!

Quelle horreur! A French holiday leads to disaster for American Anglophile Dorothy Martin in this engaging new cozy mystery. When Dorothy Martin goes to France – alone because Alan is stuck back home in Sherebury with a broken ankle – she worries about her ability to get along in a language she barely speaks, and in a country she hasn’t seen for over fifty years. But by the time Alan joins her a week later, Dorothy has found herself embroiled in one mystery after another: a woman drowning in quicksand; a man suffering a near-fatal fall in the abbey at Mont Saint Michel; and a missing American archaeologist – all seemingly connected to a monk named Abelard who has been dead for almost nine hundred years. It isn’t until another body is discovered that Dorothy’s ability to ‘think outside the box’ finally unravels the threads of a despicable scheme.

WINNER 2014 – Costa Book Awards—First Novel An internationally heralded debut novel of extraordinary warmth, insight and humanity that will appeal to readers who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Still Alice: Elizabeth Is Missing is at once a page-turning mystery that takes us from post-war Britain to the present day and a piercingly honest portrait of love and memory, families and aging through the lens of an unforgettable protagonist who will seize your heart--an elderly woman descending into forgetfulness, as she embarks alone on a quest to find the best friend she believes has disappeared. Maud, an aging grandmother, is slowly losing her memory--and her grip on everyday life. Notes fill her pockets and dot the walls of her home, increasingly crucial reminders of the immediate world. Most crucial is the fact that she can't find her only friend--Elizabeth has disappeared: she isn't answering the phone and doesn't seem to be at her house. Maud, convinced Elizabeth is in terrible danger, refuses to forget her even if her frustrated daughter, Helen, her carer, Carla, and the police won't listen and won't help. Armed with an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth desperately needs her help, Maud sets out to find her. And, unexpectedly, her search triggers an old and powerful memory of another unsolved disappearance--that of her sister, Sukey, who vanished more than 50 years ago, shortly after the Second World War. As long-ago memories emerge, Maud begins to uncover forgotten clues to her sister's disappearance and to piece together the mystery that has haunted her family for decades, discovering new momentum in her search for her friend. Could the mystery of Sukey's disappearance hold the key to finding Elizabeth?

Marvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays' apartment. He is very much a beetle. James Pompaday lives with his family in New York City. He is very much an eleven-year-old boy.After James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. James gets all the credit for the picture and before these unlikely friends know it they are caught up in a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could help recover a famous drawing by Albrecht Dürer. But James can't go through with the plan without Marvin's help. And that's where things get really complicated (and interesting!). This fast-paced mystery will have young readers on the edge of their seats as they root for boy and beetle. In Shakespeare's Secret Elise Broach showed her keen ability to weave storytelling with history and suspense, and Masterpiece is yet another example of her talent. This time around it's an irresistible miniature world, fascinating art history, all wrapped up in a special friendship— something for everyone to enjoy. Masterpiece is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Set in early 20th century France, this is the mystery of a stolen masterpiece that briefly appeared and then disappeared much to the chagrin of its artist and the purchaser, who paid for its return three different times.