The Shrew Detective: the Case of the Pilfered Pearls (Shrew Detective #1)

By: Margi Preus

Published by Abrams, Incorporated, 2026-05-19

Wind in the Willows meets Enola Holmes in this exciting, young middle grade mystery series from Newbery Honor-winning author Margi Preus and with art from Junyi Wu



Mystery: Something that is difficult or impossible to understand.



With a curious mind and a vast vocabulary (thanks to her wallpaper--pages of a discarded human dictionary), tiny Minerva Shrew would love nothing more than to solve the Big Mysteries of Life and the Universe.



Instead, in The Case of the Pilfered Pearls, she's called upon to help her cousin Tenacity solve a mystery in the most dangerous of places: a human house. When a string of pearls goes missing, the human owner is sure a "dreadful rodent" has pilfered them--and now the lives of all Minerva's friends are at risk! Will Minerva find the true culprit before the exterminators arrive?



With wit and warmth, Margi Preus creates a charming woodland world filled with creatures both whimsical and nefarious (neh-FARE-ee-us: wicked or criminal), along with suspense, intrigue, and, thanks to Minerva's metabolism, plenty of snacks.