The Trouble with Wenlocks (A Stanley Wells Mystery) by Joel Stewart (ISBN 978-0-385-61007-0)

I got very excited about this book. It felt thick, solid and screamed 'quality' at me from it's beautifully illustrated cover. Unfortunately, I was due what I term "thud-ache" (an ache which transpires after several blows to the head via a stone wall). I was expecting a children's book - having flicked through the pages and seen the size of the text - I was guessing for between 5 - 8 years of age. I could not have been more wrong. I am not at all sure who the target audience is, nor do I fully understand, what precisely, is the "mystery" of this book. It was quite simple for me: a self-indulgent load of waffle about nothing and everything, written in as an inaccessible way as humanly possible! The characters were all rather vague and 2D. And I challenge any child to read this first time through and immediately grasp its full and intended meaning.
I had so hoped that this was going to cruise along the book highway - but alas, it falls onto the hard shoulder having never managed to drag its sorry cover beyond 20 miles per hour.