Adventure, friendship, evil adversaries and a beautiful backdrop all combine to make this a rollicking good mystery.
Feature image credit: Text Publishing
Author Charlie Archbold was born in the UK but now lives in Adelaide. She is a Premiers Reading Challenge Ambassador and the author of several books including Mallee Boys and Indigo Owl. The Sugarcane Kids and the Mystery at Angel Bay is the third book in the Sugarcane Kids series.
Andy (the narrator) and his friends Eli, Bernie, Fletch, and Harvey form the Sugarcane Kids, named by Eli’s grandmother Turtle. They live in a small town called Angel Bay in northern Queensland with the Great Barrier Reef on their doorstep. It is a dream place to grow up, with coral reefs, estuaries, caves, and shipwrecks to discover.
They explore both the bay and rainforest and love to visit Jerry, a huge Queensland Groper fish who lives under the town jetty and likes to eat spiny lobsters. But one day Jerry goes missing and the children find a pile of dead fish washed up on the beach. There are also some mysterious eggs on the beach from a shark that does not normally live in these warm northern waters. And what about the new tourist resort that the rich developer Raymond Royce wants to build. How will that affect the pristine waters on the bay?
The cover illustration by George Ermos tells us a lot about the kids and their environment. We see a thick rainforest in the background, children on bikes, a huge groper fish under the jetty and a spiny lobster amongst the coral. They already look like a group of kids who enjoy an adventure.
For those who loved the previous two books in this series, this is another rollicking good mystery. It certainly keeps the reader on the edge of their seat until the very end. The children always work brilliantly together, each using their own unique talents to solve mysteries.
Archbold’s previous life as a teacher may be the reason that her Sugarcane Kids series is also very informative. Scattered with very interesting facts about nature and its animals, these pages provide the opportunity for even more learning. Referring to the Epaulette Shark, we discover that ‘epaulette’ is a French word for the fancy tassels and shoulder pieces that soldiers wear on Anzac Day, or that cocoa pods are nearly as big as footballs.
Even though this is the third book in the series, there is no need to have read the previous two books as there is a recap in the first two chapters, but after reading this story you will probably want to read the other two.
This is a great series of books for the middle and upper primary years and would make an excellent class novel, leading to much discussion and possible research on the Barrier Reef and surrounds.
Reviewed by Sue Mauger
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Text Publishing
Released: March 2026
RRP: $16.99
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