Howard Wallace, P.I.

"...Lyall's debut is a winner." --Publishers Weekly

"What's with the get-up? Is that the company uniform or something?"
"This? All P.I.s wear a trench coat."
"Dude, that's a brown bathrobe."
I shrugged and straightened out my sleeves. "First rule of private investigation, Ivy: work with what you've got."

Twelve-year-old Howard Wallace lives by his list of rules of private investigation. He knows more than anyone how to work with what he's got: a bathrobe for a trench coat, a makeshift office behind the school equipment shed, and not much else--least of all, friends. So when a hot case of blackmail lands on his desk, he's ready to take it on himself . . . until the new kid, Ivy Mason, convinces him to take her on as a junior partner. As they banter through stakeouts and narrow down their list of suspects, Howard starts to wonder if having Ivy as a sidekick--and a friend--is such a bad thing after all.

Named a Book Riot middle-grade book for the summer with special recommendation for reluctant readers
Winner of the Red Cedar Book Award for Fiction

Casey Lyall (5’4＂, brown hair, blue eyes, no known aliases) is a middle-grade writer from Southwestern Ontario. She works at her local library where she runs a number of teen groups and waits for management to discover they’re actually paying her to have fun. When she’s not writing, Casey loves to bake, watch an ＂unhealthy＂ amount of movies and television, and of course, read. She’d consider adding detective work to the list if she could find a proper coat. You can find her on Twitter as @CKLyall and at caseylyall.com.