The Guggenheim Mystery

Gr 4–6—Ted understands patterns but not people. Due to his ability to see details most people ignore, he was able to find his missing cousin Salim in the first book in this series, The London Eye Mystery, written by the late Siobhan Dowd. Aunt Gloria and Salim now live in New York. Aunt Gloria is a curator at the Guggenheim and has invited her younger sister Kat and Ted for a week's visit. Ted hates change and knows he will miss his father who remains in London; his dad is his explainer who tells him what idiomatic expressions mean and helps him navigate an often confusing world. The family goes to the museum when it is closed to the public and at that very moment smoke bombs are dropped and an expensive Kandinsky painting is stolen. The police arrest Aunt Gloria and everyone panics. Now it's up to Ted, Kat, and Salim to solve the mystery and clear Aunt Gloria's name. Through a process of deductive reasoning, they work through the list of suspects. Swift pacing and smartly integrated clues allow readers to make connections along with the characters. Stevens's portrayal of Ted, who is on the autism spectrum, is positive and empowering without being trite or falling prey to tropes.