Fans of Detective Wilcox and Captain Griswold who we met in The Case of The Missing Carrot Cake (A Wilcox and Griswold Mystery) (Creston Books, LLC, May 12, 2015) have returned in their second thrilling episode combining mystery and hilarity. With every reading the language written by Robin Newman gets richer and richer with one comedic comment, thought or sentence after another. Her command of word play will have you laughing out loud at the same time you wonder in amazement how she manages to create combination after combination of words with more than one meaning. The references to chickens, other fowl and farm life are astonishing. The blend of dialogue, spoken and silent accounts by Detective Wilcox and the lack of speech but knowing looks by Captain Griswold make for an eggs-cellent contrast. The use of time of day and place at the beginning of each chapter add to the law enforcement atmosphere. Detective Wilcox usually manages to close chapters with astute observations."If we don't find Penny fast, I whispered to the captain, "she might end up in an omelet.

Or worse, in a bucket of fried chicken!"We had to scramble on this case. Scramble before we had scrambled eggs indeed. Illustrator Deborah Zemke has a keen eye for making the book case look like a well-used file folder or pages from a case file. Placing the A Wilcox and Griswold Mystery logo inside a poached egg is sheer design genius. The cracked egg shells and fowl prints carry across the opening endpapers which includes the verso and title pages. Every detail references to policemice work. On the two introductory pages a map of Ed's Farm is placed over MFI photographs of Captain Griswold and Detective Wilcox. With every page turn small images on placed within the text, reflecting the narrative.

Each chapter begins with an oval image at the top. To emphasize a moment the illustration might cover a half of the page or be spread across the bottom of two pages.The eyes on the chickens, the body posture and facial expressions on all the characters, and their clothing add to the humor. It's particularly funny that the MFIs are much smaller than most of the animals on the farm. Readers will find themselves chuckling at some of the details; Colonel Peck's oversized comb, the names of the chickens written on their boxes, and Gabby's pouch for carrying her egg, Gertie.One of my favorite illustrations of many is at the beginning. There is something about Detective Wilcox's and Captain Griswold's car being a wind-up toy which I find hilarious. In the lower half of the page they are leaving MFI Headquarters which happens to be a Sneaker Squeakers box.

As Griswold opens the driver's side of the car, Wilcox is turning the key to get the car moving. Their hats and coats are totally in keeping with the old style vision of law enforcement attire. Sleuths are going to get caught up in this farmyard whodunit trying to piece the clues together. The Case Of The Poached Egg (A Wilcox and Griswold Mystery) written by Robin Newman with illustrations by Deborah Zemke is bursting with the imaginative use of words. I don't think you will ever look at an egg the same way again. Early readers are going to savor every page.