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It looks like Detective Humpty Dumpty, Jr. is going to be busy again. Ghosts are loose inside Merlin’s Institute for the Knowledge of Everything, and crime boss “Royal” Flush is at large in the city. Troublesome cases, but they should be easy to crack for Humpty Dumpty, Jr. and his new sidekick Rat. After all, they did recently solve the case of the Fiendish Flapjack.
To investigate these two new cases, Humpty Dumpty, Jr. decides to work disguised as a school janitor while Rat does a little undercover work as a student. The problem is how to get inside an institute that only accepts rich kids with magical powers. A glowing sword gets Rat in. Headmaster Merlin sees the Excalibur sword glowing in Rat’s presence and concludes that Rat is the new King Arthur. He immediately enrolls Rat at the school with the idea that he will be in charge of all Rat’s lessons.
Getting Humpty Dumpty, Jr. into the school will be more challenging. Rat will have to resort to using a little egg-beater magic. But once inside, no ghosts or gangsters will be able to hide for long when these two detectives are on the case.
Although Headmaster Merlin insists there are no ghosts at his institute, young Lily knows better - her dad is sick because of a ghost. Accompanying Humpty Dumpty, Jr. and Rat on their nightly ghost watches at the institute, Lily and the detectives discover that the institute is indeed haunted by two very different-looking ghosts, moaning about two very different things. They also notice the guards acting suspiciously, and they overhear potentially incriminating conversations. Surprising, yes, but more surprising is the gang of criminals they discover working at the school and their dastardly plans for the future.
This second book in the "Humpty Dumpty, Jr: Hardboiled Detective" series consists of twenty-one short chapters and a three-page epilogue. This book contains more of what readers remember from the first book: egg jokes, magic-wand disasters, an appearance by the famous baker Patty Cake, and pages and pages of humorous illustrations - which in this book include King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and a rabbit named Nurse Punnymany.
Three talented men are responsible for creating these “once upon a crime" books. Presently living in Georgia, Nate Evans is the author and illustrator of many children’s books, including ones he co-authored with Laura Numeroff. Paul Hindman is the author of Dragon Bones, and his works have aired on PBS. Having worked for various comic and book companies, Vince Evans was awarded the Spectrum Silver Award for excellence in comic art. He and his brother Nate are the illustrators of the "Humpty Dumpty Jr. Hardboiled Detective" books.
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Humpty Dumpty, Jr., Hardboiled Detective: The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost