Sprightly black-and-white, pen-and-ink spot illustrations enliven the brief chapters, which are filled with earnest, clever kids being funny – and, more importantly, smart. As always, the book ends with some of the most enjoyable stuff of all: Super Sleuthing Strategies, a series of highly enjoyable brain teasers.

Embellished with whimsical pencil and ink illustrations, The Case of the Diamonds in the Desk continues to dazzle in a parade of fun, fast-moving sequences of events that merge to spiral into a perfectly planned mystery for kids to untangle. Especially effective tactics included working backwards to solve the mystery, and diagramming the evidence and time sequences.