The Lucky House Detective Agency
Written by: Scarlett Li #TheLuckyHouseDetectiveAgency
Illustrated by: Sian James @sianjart
Published by: Knights Of @_KnightsOf
Published on: June 2025
Price: £7.99
First line: “Clues hide in plain sight,” I say.
Genre: Detective fiction
Age: 8+
Thanks to the UKLA for the review copy.
What’s it all about? Nei ho ma? Felix helps his parents run the Leighton-on-Sea Chinese restaurant, called, ‘The Lucky House’. However, alongside his friend, Isaac, he really wants to be a detective, solving Sherlock Holmes style mysteries. With Isaac’s logical thinking and his own impulsiveness, they are the perfect dream team, but they’ll have to break some rules to find out who has tried to destroy the family’s lucky money plant (called Optimus).
Why should I read it? The friends are great characters, and a study in friendship. There are some great moments where they argue and disagree, but their friendship strengthens as they talk things through. These moments would be great to discuss in a reading group. I really like how each of the customers is named after their take-away order! There are some nice snippets of Cantonese used throughout the story as well, and you can see how useful the author’s time in kitchens in Australia while growing-up has been for the details in this story! The story seemed a bit static to begin with, however, once the coin is found, the pace really speeds up, and there are numerous obstacles and near-death experiences for the boys to escape from. I look forward to reading the next book in this new series.
Kinkajousreadtoo 
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