Masterpiece meets Encyclopedia Brown in this fast-paced tale of sleuthing and derring-do in which precocious Florian Bates is enlisted by the FBI to help solve a series of art thefts.
“You can tell a lot about someone just by what you see from the sidewalk.”
Florian is a 12-year old budding Sherlock Holmes. He has just moved to Washington D.C. where his parents both took new jobs at the National Gallery of Art, and he practices a strategy he calls T.O.A.S.T.: the theory of all small things. He observes the details, great and small, noticing the stickers and decals on car windows and bumpers; the wear and tear on people’s clothing; the tattoos people may be exposing or hiding. He makes deductions just like the famed fictional British detective.
Florian’s sleuthing abilities lead him to become instant friends with his new neighbor, Sydney, who will become his mystery-solving partner. It also comes to the attention of the FBI whose agents don’t like being shown up by Florian’s superior attention to detail, but the Director values Florian’s talents, instincts, and his experience.
“My hovercraft is full of monkeys.”
The mystery in Framed! is layered, brisk, and fun. It involves understanding what goes on in an art museum, the world of valuable masterpiece art sales, and a criminal syndicate from Romania. As it turns out, Sydney even has a mysterious adoption backstory. Readers will learn a great deal of useful information about Impressionist paintings, but they’ll also be charmed by Florian and Sydney’s witty and competitive bantering, while pursuing the clues that winkle out the true identity of the art thieves. Readers, alongside Florian, will get a crash-course in how to be an FBI agent!
There are shades of James Bond in Florian’s instruction, training, and the use of FBI gadgets. The FBI Director is sold when he realizes that Florian is more observant than his best agents. (Only Florian knows the color of the Director’s socks!). Thanks to a panic button disguised as an inhaler and a secret code using obscure Romanian phrases, Florian and Sydney are eventually able to crack the case.
“Florian Bates Investigations is solving the mysteries of the world, one case at a time.”
