Kidnap on the California Comet ~ M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman

At the beginning of last year, I read The Highway Falcon Thief and completely devoured it. I absolutely adored the story and the characters, although I will admit I was a little dubious starting it as my local train system kept messing me around, so trains didn’t really excite me all that much. Now, twelve months on, and in lockdown three-point-oh, I’m finding myself missing train journeys. 

Kidnap on the California Comet has been sat on my shelf since September and tempting me to read it despite the number of books ahead of it in my TBR. Finally, I got around to reading it and it was over far too quickly. With my last reading being Charles Dickens, a middle-grade adventure was a welcome relief.

Kidnap on the California Comet follows on from The Highland Falcon Thief, taking place, this time, in the October half-term. Hal’s Uncle Nat has been asked to ride the California Comet from Chicago to Emeryville and has brought Hal along with him as he enjoyed travelling on the Highland Falcon so much. When a billionaire train enthusiast’s daughter gets kidnapped, Hal finds himself in the middle of another mystery.

One thing Leonard and Sedgman do that stands out is the characters that Hal meets on his adventures. In the first book, it was Lenny, this time it’s Mason and Hadley. Both of them seem to be lifelong friends and very quirky. I can imagine myself in Hal’s shoes and immediately taking a liking to both of them and becoming quick friends. Marianne and Ryan were also interesting characters that added another layer of intrigue to the story with their behaviours. Up until meeting them, I was expecting all the children in these books to kind of band together against (most of) the adults who didn’t take them seriously. It was great to see another dynamic play out.

The relationship between Hal and Uncle Nat is also explored more, especially as there isn’t that awkward getting to know each other dynamic. They get on really well and I loved seeing how they relied on each other to flesh out ideas and solve clues. 

There wasn’t quite a cast of characters like there was in The Highland Falcon Thief and I think that made this book work amazingly well. The mystery was complex enough that adding more personalities would’ve just been too much. 

Elisa Paganelli, the illustrator, does such an amazing job of bringing Leonard and Sedgman’s words to life with beautiful illustrations that just have so much life to them. 

If it’s not clear to see, I absolutely adored Kidnap on the California Comet and as soon as I finished I preordered the next book, Murder on the Safari Star which comes out on the 4th February. I cannot wait to read it and see if it is another five star read!

C🌙