Krampus Confidential

Gr 3-6–Ruprecht, a 12-year-old Krampus, is not the most well-loved creature in Tinseltown, due to some previous misunderstandings and framing for bad behavior that he had nothing to do with. Now that it is winter break, he is working with his best friend, a girl ghost named Marley, to solve cases they get in their makeshift detective agency. However, things go south when an elf comes to them with an alarming amount of “jollification” cases, where an elf is so overwhelmed with holiday spirit that they crash into a coma. Who is the biggest suspect in this ring of jollifications?: An unidentified krampus. Ruprecht must clear his own name, as he has just become the number one suspect. Readers will need a lot of backstory in order to understand Ruprecht. He has a sarcastic, hyperbolic detective tone in his inner thoughts or to other characters that some young readers will find funny and quirky, but others might not recognize. The chapters are short and end in cliff-hangers, making this mystery a page-turner. However, the whodunit meanders and then slows down toward the middle of the book.