Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the cover image to Case Closed 24.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Jimmy Kudo is an ace high school detective, but after two mysterious men in black 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.

In Case Closed, Vol. 24, Conan and the Junior Detective League solve the murder of the unpopular boss.  Next, Conan, Richard Moore (the Sleeping Detective), and his daughter Rachel (Jimmy’s girl friend), take on the case of a doctor killed in his own home, and his entire family is suspect.  Finally, Conan joins Anita Haley, who was also exposed to the substance that turned Jimmy Kudo in a child, in a case of political assassination that returns Anita to her dark past.

THE LOWDOWN:  The best thing about this volume of Case Closed (known as Detective Conan in Japan) is that one of the cases gets into the mythology of the series.  Reading about Conan and friends solving cases (which fall into the “classical mystery” category of detective stories) is certainly fun.  However, the core storyline of the series is the mystery behind Jimmy Kudo’s transformation into a child.  The big questions are about who did it to him and how can he be cured, so when creator Gosho Aoyama delves into the core of the series, that can be a fun break from the routine cases.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  If you like whodunit type mystery tales and would read those in comic book form, here is the enjoyable Case Closed.

A-