“Can the Twitchers solve the impossible case of the evil cat killer?”

It’s a few months down the track from the Twitchers bank robbery fame, and they are on another holiday break. The hut (hide) Twitch and his friends have built with council consent in exchange for rubbish collection in Aves Wood, is strong and completely invisible from any passer-by. It’s still perfect for bird watching too.

Twitch’s friend Jack is trying to be better at watching and identifying birds, but is struggling to get the hang of it. Twitch tells him he just hasn’t seen his spark bird yet – the one that makes you a bird watcher for life.

In the Wood one day, Jack hears a howling that runs a shiver down his spine. What he finds is an injured cat. Braving scratches and a very scared and angry cat, he rushes it to the vet. He learns there have been more injured cats and one than even died. When he tells Twitch, they decide this might be a new case for them. Who is hurting the local cats and why?

Their small town is becoming busy with visitors, all keen to see a very rare bearded vulture that has the town in its flight path. Twitch is beside himself with excitement, telling the rest of the Twitchers all about it, all the while forgetting Jack’s plan to investigate the hurt animals. Jack, a little cross with Twitch’s bird obsession, begins the investigation on his own.

He soon discovers his new case is much bigger than the local moggies. There is much afoot including a Halloween party, illegal guns, the town bullies, a marksman, rat poison, a bird costume and lots of zombies!

Can the Twitchers do it again? Solve the mystery, save the cats, and stop the culprits before they do something even more terrible?

The sequel to the exciting Twitch, Spark is told in Jack’s point of view. Just as in Twitch, one strange event kicks off another and another, until Jack, Twitch and their friends are waist deep into a plan to foil the baddies!

Pressure on the Twitchers grows as the police become involved, their parents are in the mix and their plan must work to implicate the baddies and not drop the Twitchers into trouble instead.

Spark is just as entertaining as Twitch and can be read on its own. But I recommend reading Twitch first in order to know the character’s back stories. The next book in the series – Clutch, is now on the shelves.

Author – M G Leonard

Age – 9+

See a book review for Twitch (Click on the Cover)

(2022, Walker Books, Harper Collins, Series, Friendship, Wood, Cats, Animals, Birdwatching, Bearded Vulture, Zombies, Halloween Party, Family, Bullies, Tricks, Playing dead, Courage, Crime, Guns, Humour)