Rockstar Detectives is a fun light-hearted mystery, that will make adults laugh and captivate the younger audience it's intended for with it's plot and characters.

This was a good fun read.
I read this with my niece,
we would have a good chat about the chapters we read and who we thought it might be.
We hope there will be a book 2.

Rockstar Detectives featured a brilliant mystery, two very funny and relatable protagonists and excellent themes! This was a great book that I enjoyed reading and I would definitely recommend it!

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc!

Charley Parker is a 12-year-old rockstar, thanks to her best friend George’s videos going viral. Now, she’s embarking on a tour of Europe but some priceless works of art appear to be going missing in each of the cities they visit. Charley and George are the police’s prime suspects, so they must solve the case before their tour is cancelled and they end up in a jail cell. This crazy romp through Amsterdam, Rome and Tours alongside two smart, loveable characters was a lot of fun. I loved the mystery and the twist at the end, which I definitely didn’t see coming. There is also some commentary on disability and the rapidly changing face of the music industry, which gave the whole book a lot of heart.

Well, I gotta say this was a very enjoyeable and sweet read. I liked the dynamics between our main characters rockstar/singer Charlie and comedist/video and marketer George. It was honestly so good to read about a m/f friendship that is very postitive. I wish we got more of that in the YA genres too... I really liked that George is a disabled guy in a wheelchair and that doesn't bother him, it's not shown as people feeling sorry for him, or anything. It felt very authentic to how disabled people on wheelchairs feel, and I hope they appreciate it! (I'm not in a wheelchair, though I am disabled, but the disabled community all agree that this is the way to do the rep, as a trait the character has, not necesserally a big struggle, but not letting the struggles away as they don't exsit either. And I feel like this nicely balanced that and George is famous and well loved too!)
The mystery part was pretty well done, I was genuinly interested to find out who framed Charlie and George as art thieves, and when it was revealed in the end, it felt real and possible, not just coming out of nowhere as we had somes signs, but it was the one whom they least expected, brilliant!
It's a children's/middle grade book, so it may feel unrealistic how a kid became so famous, and how the police couldn't solve the case by themselves, but still it's very nice. I believe kids will really enjoy this, especially the cute illustrations, they're very aesthetically pleasing, I even did a doodle of Charlie and George in a math notebook, lol.

Sophie has been a fan of Australian comedian Adam Hills since she watched him hosting the UK’s paralympic coverage in 2012. When she learned that he had written his first middle-grade novel, Rockstar Detectives, while in quarantine, she knew she had to pick it up.

Twelve-year-old Charley Parker is a newly minted rockstar and a viral sensation out on her first tour across Europe where she is performing regularly to hundreds of young fans. Also in tow is her best friend and videographer George whose video of Charley singing at their London school sparked her rise to stardom. However, after Charley’s show in Amsterdam, the pair find themselves interviewed by a local detective investigating the theft of a painting at the Van Gogh Museum—a painting that Charley and George both admired that very afternoon as part of an assignment set by their teacher.

Shaking off the strange coincidence, Charley and George head to their next show in Rome, but when yet another artifact is stolen the night after they were seen admiring it, rumors start to spread. Now Charley and George are under serious suspicion from the police and their fans are starting to have doubts too. It’s up to Charley and George to solve the crime before the tour is canceled and they find themselves behind bars, but who is behind the thefts, and why are they doing it?

This was a fun, fast-paced story with a refreshingly diverse pair of protagonists. Sophie doesn’t think she has ever read a novel starring a character who uses a wheelchair (and even if she has, there clearly aren’t nearly enough such books) and loved seeing the world through George’s perspective because, as he puts it, he, “sees the world on a different level to everyone else.” George’s goal to become a comedian is also something Sophie doesn’t recall ever reading before which gave the writing a very unique—and funny—style.

While the story itself was a fairly typical middle-grade mystery (both Sophie and her husband had figured out “whodunnit” well before reaching the halfway point) the characters, interesting settings like the Colosseum in Rome and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and other unique elements like Charley’s viral fame and George’s comedy ambitions all work together to make this a great debut that young readers will love.

'Rockstar Detectives' was so much fun to read. I read this book all in one sitting as I could not put it down and I was having so much fun reading it.
This is definitely a book aimed at a younger audience but I still found a lot of enjoyment in it and even found myself laughing a few times throughout. I liked that the characters developed a lot throughout the book, and I really loved the friendship between Charley and George and the overall message of the importance of friendship.
This is a book I would really recommend children reading as it was so much fun and I can imagine that it's a lot of fun for a child to read and try and guess who the 'bad guy' of the book is.

I appreciate the comedy of the author alot, so wondered if that would shine in this and I think it does as we get a fun story of intrigue, friendship and following your dreams in this book about two young people being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Both Charlie and George are really well written characters who have such great personalities throughout this book and really react to things like a kid would which I think is sometimes very difficult to write, however I think the author does such a good job here - not to mention I've not actually read enough books with characters that are in a wheelchair, nevermind ones that are written as well as this - George is a great balance to Charlie's character throughout. I think it's put well in the book that Charlie is the creative one, and George is the planner.

Plot-wise, it's such a fun read and very difficult to stop reading, especially coming into those final chapters where the story twists and turns and makes for a fantastic ending. The use of history in the places they visit is done really well and the story has a really fast and great pace that kids are going to love. The cast of characters is excellent, and I can imagine this being the first in a great series, but I'd also love to see this as a kid's show or film, it feels like you're watching a film sometimes as the scene setting is done so well.

A really fun read that kids will love, I hope we have more adventures with these two great characters!

This was an adorable read. Perhaps I should preface my review with my background though: I’m an adult and definitely not the target group, so this is obviously something I’m bearing in mind as I read this review. Moreover, I received a free copy in advance but it was in exchange for an honest review and therefore has no impact on my rating.

Two things drew me to this book:

1) The inclusion of a character with a disability. My own disability is very different from George’s, but I would have given so much to read more stories with disabled characters when I was a child.
2) I absolutely devoured all sorts of detective stories when I was a child and I’m not ashamed to say that I am still happy to re-read some of my favourites as an adult. I wanted to see how these sorts of stories are done these days.

Overall, this was a well-done children’s book with an interesting story line and a plot twist that I admittedly so coming from miles away as an adult reader but that would probably surprise younger readers. The following aspects stood out:

The writing & the illustrations: This was well-suited for the targeted age group. The only thing that bothered me a little was an overuse of brackets in places where they were absolutely not necessary. The illustrations were cute and fitting but also not overdone – perfect!

The characters: I thought the two main protagonists – Charley and George – were very likeable and I would have loved them as a kid! Most importantly, I can’t stress enough how much I loved seeing a children’s book with a disabled character that is not solely defined by their disability. I thought this was well done as George’s wheelchair does feature in the book and in some plotlines) in a tactful way) and this sense it’s always there but it’s not his defining characteristic/talent/problem as it sometimes tends to be in stories about disabled characters. More of this please, especially in children’s fiction!

Most of the adult characters remain stereotypes at best and are just utterly clueless at worst. It fits the book and its vibe overall – it’s not the most serious book in the world but meant to be a more fun and light-hearted romp. Nonetheless, I thought I should mention this in a review as I remember very vividly that when I was a child reading books it bothered me a little when adult characters were obviously a lot less well-rounded than the kid protagonists. This is down to personal taste though.

The plot: It was a fun romp, honestly, but even for a middle-grade book I found this a little far-fetched. The kids are being accused of art theft – but apparently the police never informed their parents but keeps threatening to arrest them. They take it on themselves to solve the crime but some of their suspects are so far-fetched you can’t even consider it circumstantial. For example, they suspect a friend’s father because he is a pilot and apparently that means he could have reached the international destinations that things were stolen from. It depends a lot on the child, they level or maturity and experience as a reader. However, personally, when I was middle-grade-aged I was already reading detective fiction with more realistic plotlines and suspects. I would, therefore, recommend this story for younger children and/or inexperienced readers. I did love the different places that the protagonists visited and the information on various European destinations & their history. This was very well done!


Finally, this might just be an issue with EARC from Netgalley, but the formatting was very odd at times. It didn't bother me but should be looked at if there is a plan to publish this as an ebook.

Brilliantly inclusive and hilarious book from the awesome Adam Hills! This read is perfect for kids growing confidence in their reading, and it’s just a wonderful spirited story with a great cast of characters. Rockstar Detectives will capture the imagination of many young readers.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

12 year old Charley is a viral singing sensation taking the world by storm; along with her best friend/cameraman/future comedian George, they are touring the world and having the time of their lives.

When a priceless painting goes missing whilst they're on tour, the duo are shocked to find themselves as prime suspects of the crime. It's down to the two rockstar detectives to prove their innocence when evidence of even more bizarre thefts seem to be stacking against them.

I love this book, it's hilarious and witty with a real mystery that kept me guessing. It also made me want to visit so many places in the world, I learned new things in the most fun way! The characters are so likeable, even the not so nice ones - I couldn't help but root for them at the end, that's the kind of story this this. I absolutely love that George being a wheelchair user is such a normal part of the story and isn't made into a big deal, it's exactly as it should be and I'm so happy his hilarious character is what shines through above all else. I hope there's going to be a second book, this was too funny for there to not be a follow up.

A lovely story that has a good moral basis, the a children’s crime novel! What’s not to love? The thing I loved the most was the way disability was not just tagged on, there was some exploration of it and cross over in history to the romans! Adam Hill’s is a man who is so talented and I didn’t expect such a good book from him! I really hope he writes another one as it’ll make such a difference to so many children