#MGTakesOnThursday: Diagnosis Danger by Roopa Farooki

This is a weekly meme started and hosted by @marysimms72 on her brilliant Book Craic blog which I urge you to read. Also, please check out all the other posts and Tweets with the #MGTakesOnThursday tag, you will be sure to find many fantastic recommendations!

If you love books written for an MG audience and wish to take part, the steps to follow are:

• Post a picture of a front cover of a middle-grade book which you have read and would recommend to others with details of the author, illustrator and publisher.

• Open the book to page 11 and share your favourite sentence.

• Write three words to describe the book

• Either share why you would recommend this book, or link to your review.

Author: Roopa Farooki

Illustrator: Mike Lowery

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Favourite sentence from Page 11: 

‘ Where’s all your stuff?’ asked Jay, noticing that the girls didn’t have the regulation burst-to-the-seams plastic bags.

This book in three words: Twins – Trouble – Deception

The double detectives are back and ready to take you on a second heart-stopping, life-or-death medical mystery!

Diagnosis Danger begins two weeks after the end of Tulip and Ali’s first mystery,  The Cure for a Crime; you could read this book as a standalone but I would recommend that you read the books in order to fully appreciate the story.

When Ali and Tulip are around adventure is sure to follow and this book plunges you straight into the drama from the moment you open the cover. At first it is just Ali losing her cool as the girls walk home from school with neighbouring twins Jay and Zac. She has been looking forward to her first ever overseas holiday during half-term, but their hard-working, brain surgeon mother phones to cancel the trip at the last minute due to work pressures. The quote from page 11 illustrates the contrast in the family lives of both sets of twins: Jay and Zac are fed home-cooked, vegetarian, gluten-free meals by parents who treasure every cardboard creation, whilst Tulip and Ali live on fast food and don’t bother bringing art projects home because their mum is constantly working or exhausted.  As Ali stamps and shouts her displeasure and Tulip, aided by Zac and Jay, tries to calm her, rescue in the shape of their friend Momo’s minicab arrives on the scene.

However, before you can utter the words popliteal artery, Momo is stabbed by a heavily disguised passenger as she exits his cab. Ali and Tulip jump into action with the medical knowledge they have assimilated and stop the bleeding from his leg, accompanying Momo to Accident and Emergency at their mum’s hospital. After some funny banter between their mum and a vascular surgeon (electricians versus plumbers) they are eventually collected by their wonderful Nan-Nan, my favourite character in this series, a former secret service operative who has lost both of her legs at some point in her colourful career. Nan-Nan is now a member of an undercover operation known as SWAT (Senior Water Aerobics Team) and clearly has suspicions about who the disguised assailant might be. She declares her intention to take the girls away for half-term …although the destination is rather less glamorous than her grand-daughters hoped for.

Rounding up their feral cat Witch, they head to Catty’s Cattery, supposedly a luxury hotel for feline guests which turns out to be a rundown, dilapidated holiday camp, full of extremely ill pensioners who are fed on out-of-date junk food. Nan-Nan has recruited her smart, wisecracking pair of juvenile detectives to join her on an undercover investigation into the mysterious cash injections being received by the deeply unpleasant owner of this establishment.

This story rattles along at a frantic pace with the fast-talking  twins, their irrepressible grandmother  and loyal friends sifting through the clues to unearth the sinister criminal activities at Catty’s Cattery. Along the way, author Roopa Farooki ( a real-life doctor)  cleverly highlights the plight of many elderly people who cannot afford the costs of care in their old age and may be open to abuse and neglect.  I also admire this book for presenting a positive portrayal of a wheelchair user; Nan-Nan’s can-do attitude is laced with humour and bravery. Tulip and Ali are dynamic and inspiring tween characters and the Mini-Medix Blog appendix to the story provides unique scientific and medical content. If you are looking for an entertaining and educational MG Mystery for children of 10+ who love science then make an appointment with a Double Detectives Medical Mystery!

I am most grateful to Oxford University Press for providing my review copy of this book.