Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets (A Botanic Hill Detectives Mystery, #1) by Sherrill Joseph
Release: February 1st 2020
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Source: R&R Book Tours
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World-famous Egyptologist Dr. Winston Thornsley died suddenly two months ago in disgrace. His widow, Ida Thornsley, remains convinced her husband was accused of falsely stealing an ancient burial urn he discovered in Egypt last summer, but local and federal law enforcement officers are stumped.
Mrs. Thornsley, desperate for answers, calls in her thirteen-year-old neighbors, the Botanic Hill Detectives—twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt, Moki Kalani, and Rani Kumar. Their exciting mission? To find the urn and its real thief, bring the criminal to justice, and exonerate Dr. Thornsley s to restore his spotless reputation.
A roomful of venomous snakes, the poisoned Egyptian pond, and Dragon Pit Man are just a few of the tests awaiting the four tech-savvy teenagers. As the detectives begin to unravel the sinister plot, the mystery takes a dangerous turn. Answers are at their fingertips—if they can only convince their parents to let them solve the case.
Sherrill Joseph’s debut novel, Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets, had been inside her head for decades. 
The mystery genre took hold of her as a fifth grader when she discovered Nancy Drew and Phyllis A. Whitney mysteries. Years later, it still hasn’t let go.
After graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a master’s in education, Sherrill spent the next thirty-five years as a K-12 literacy teacher. When she retired from teaching in 2013, the Botanic Hill Detectives and their mysteries finally sprang to life.
Forever inspired by her beautiful students in the San Diego public schools, the author has peopled and themed the Botanic Hill Detectives mysteries with children of various abilities, cultures, and interests. She strongly believes that embracing diversity is the key to a better world.
Sherrill is a native San Diegan where she lives in a ninety-year-old house in a historic neighborhood with her bichon frisé-poodle mix, Jimmy Lambchop. In addition to her dog, the city of San Diego, reading and writing, the author loves her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. She must also include dark chocolate, popcorn, old movies, staircases, the color purple, and daisies. She is a member of SCBWI and the Authors’ Guild and promises many more adventures with the squad to come.
Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets Review:
A Big thank you to R&R Book Tours for providing me a copy of “Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets” for my review. This was fun to read and I enjoyed it for many reasons!
Pros
Firstly, I loved how the author included Synesthesia on one of the characters, and used this to help solve the crime. This is the first time I read how synesthesia was used to solve a mystery, which I thought was very interesting. Secondly, I liked how the author included many Egyptian trivia and history into the story-line. When we talk about Egypt, we have a general idea about Mummies, Pyramids and Sphinxes. However, I didn’t know anything about Wadget and Menes prior to reading this story. The facts included are fascinating and made me research more about Egyptian Gods. Thirdly, I also learned quite a few Hawaiian terms like “pilikia”, “all pau” and “pupule”. The author also provided a nice glossary of Hawaiian terms and how to speak the language in the end.
Characters:
Furthermore, the author wrote the characters very well. Lexi and Lanny are wonderful as the detective twins and complement each other very well. Moki is cute and adorable and adds a nice comedy element. As an Indian, I felt like Rani came across as a bit clichéd, but nevertheless very sweet and added well to the group. The villains are predictable, but the reason why they were behind it was surprising.
Cons
However, there are only two minor reasons as to why I didn’t give this book a 5 star rating. Firstly, the group talks about their previous adventures (even though this is the first book in the series). Initially this threw me off, because I felt like I might have missed reading an earlier book. Secondly, the characters sounded mature for their age. I understand the author perhaps did this because even the first Nancy Drew book had these similarities. However, I feel like unless you are a fan of those classics, new readers might find it a bit difficult to understand the beauty of this book, in comparison to the current simplistic style of other middle grade novels out there.
Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed this reading this book a lot and it brought back a lot of memories. The author did a wonderful job in writing this story. I loved reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys growing up, and the style of this book is reminiscent to those. I also noticed that the kids don’t use any modern technology, like their phones, to solve the mystery. It has a very nostalgic and classic feel to it, where you feel like you are thrown back in time.
Thanks, Rajiv, for your review of my book and for posting it on your site. I’m so glad you liked my characters and Egyptians references.
I’m not sure what you meant by “the previous mysteries” you say are referenced. This is their first mystery, other than their accidentally “solving” a diamond theft in Paris the year before when the thieves ran into the kids on the sidewalk in front of a jewelry shop. Only the second mystery is alluded to at the end of the book.
Thanks for noticing that my characters are mature and responsible. I created them that way so that, hopefully, they will be role models for kids. You might find it interesting to know that I based these four 13-year-old sleuths on my 11-year-old fifth graders, who were very mature and kind. They gave me the idea for my detectives!
Book 2 in the series launches in October. I hope you will check it out! Thanks again.
Thanks so much for your comments! Your fifth-graders sound wonderful and hope they inspire you to write many more stories =)
Yes, the ‘previous mysteries’ was in reference to the diamond theft (and if I recall, a section where they reference Bruce saving them in the jungle). I felt I was reading a recap of a previous book, as such recaps are not the norm of middle grade tales nowadays, hence threw me off.
I’m looking forward to Book 2 and hope you continue to add many more adventures to this series.