\u201c…Lyall\u2019s debut is a winner.\u201d —Publishers Weekly
\u201cWhat\u2019s with the get-up? Is that the company uniform or something?\u201d
\u201cThis? All P.I.s wear a trench coat.\u201d
\u201cDude, that\u2019s a brown bathrobe.\u201d
I shrugged and straightened out my sleeves. \u201cFirst rule of private investigation, Ivy: work with what you\u2019ve got.\u201d
Twelve-year-old Howard Wallace lives by his list of rules of private investigation. He knows more than anyone how to work with what he\u2019s got: a bathrobe for a trench coat, a makeshift office behind the school equipment shed, and not much else—least of all, friends. So when a hot case of blackmail lands on his desk, he\u2019s ready to take it on himself . . . until the new kid, Ivy Mason, convinces him to take her on as a junior partner. As they banter through stakeouts and narrow down their list of suspects, Howard starts to wonder if having Ivy as a sidekick—and a friend—is such a bad thing after all.
