Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Case Closed, Gosho Aoyama’s long-running detective manga series, stars Jimmy Kudo, an ace high school detective.  After two mysterious men in black attack Jimmy and administer to him a strange substance, Jimmy physically transforms into a first grader.  While searching for a cure, Jimmy takes the identity of elementary school student, Conan Edogawa.  Acting alone and sometimes with his friends, the Junior Detective League, Jimmy/Conan keeps on solving criminal cases and mysteries.

Case Closed, Vol. 23 opens with the Junior Detective League taking in a triple feature at an old theatre on its last day of operation.  When an audience member is found dead, Conan and friends realize that the monster on screen isn’t the worst monster in the theatre.

Next, it’s murder on the high seas as Conan, Detective Richard Moore (the “Sleeping Detective”), and his daughter, Rachel, join a mystery cruise.  Multiple murders and suspicious explosions kill the cruise’s romantic mood.  Conan is joined by the “other” greatest detective in Japan, Harley Hartwell, to uncover this tangled case of murder, revenge, and a haunting from the past.

THE LOWDOWN:  It’s wall to wall mystery, and if ever there were a manga for lovers of classical mystery stories, Case Closed is it.  Just like everyone’s favorite mystery lovers’ novels, Case Closed is full of ingeniously conceived murders and bizarre murder contraptions.  Solving the cases (or trying to) is just fun, except that like many classical mystery stories, one gets the feeling that the author cheats to keep readers from solving the case.  Still, this series is an absolute delight to read.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  For those who want to feel like they are part of Scooby-Doo and the gang.

A-