What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Good day everyone.
Thanx for all your previous help.
I read this between 1987 and 1991.
A large mall was getting robbed serially, and the thief left no scent for police dogs to track. The thief steals jewels and sometimes chocolates.
An absent minded scientist had created a powerful cleaning fluid. Unknown to him, his assistant was an identical twin who regularly rotated his work in the lab with his identical brother. The only thing the scientist noticed was that there were some days his assistant would be chewing chocolate, and other days, not chewing chocolate.
The powerful cleaning fluid was always missing.
There was a good private detective (good in disguises) who the store owner hired to crack the case of stolen jewels and chocolate, and also to find out how the thief was not tracked by sniffer police dogs.
The detective was able to find out that the twins were stealing the powerful cleaning fluid and using it to wipe their scents whenever they took turns to rob the store.
Only their mother could tell them apart, and that was even after she had watched them for a while or listened to them.
Book was illustrated.
I think the store owner was related to the scientist.
Thanx for your time.

When you say it was illustrated, do you mean it was a children's picture book? Or, a middle grade chapter book with a few illustrations?

Or, was it a graphic novel/comic book?

Were the illustrations colorful, realistic, full page, etc?

Tab wrote: "When you say it was illustrated, do you mean it was a children's picture book? Or, a middle grade chapter book with a few illustrations?

Or, was it a graphic novel/comic book?

Were the illustrati..."

Nah, not a children's picture book.
Middle grade chapter book...errr, what's that?
Few illustrations...no, I don't think there were just a few illustrations.
It wasn't a graphic novel/comic book.
Illustrations were black and white and were fairly realistic. As to being full page or not, I don't remember.

Middle grade books are books that fall between young children's books and teen books. They are geared towards 8-12 year olds. Books like Roald Dahl's Matilda fall in the middle grade bracket.

Do you remember which age group your book was for?

Tab wrote: "Middle grade books are books that fall between young children's books and teen books. They are geared towards 8-12 year olds. Books like Roald Dahl's Matilda fall in the middle grade bracket.

Do ..."


My age range when I read it over and over again was...6 to 11, I think...
But that was also around the time I read a lot of James Hadley Chase novels and I also read Everywoman and also Jackie Collin's Lucky when I was 11...so...I don't know...I think the answer to your question is...I think it was in the Matilda Roald Dahl bracket...
Or slightly older than that. Slightly.

Can you describe the private detective - age, gender, personality?

What's the tone - mystery (try to solve it), funny, action, etc.?

Kris wrote: "Can you describe the private detective - age, gender, personality?

What's the tone - mystery (try to solve it), funny, action, etc.?"

Age of private detective: I'll say, as old as James Bond always is...? 38, 39, 40, 41, 42...?

Gender of private detective: male

Tone of book: mystery and I think it was funny. Calm. Easy to read, easy language. Laid back. Not action.
Possibly not tiny print.

I think the book was hardcover...

Bump.
Anyone?

Oy, bump?

Your description is great, really detailed. Which facts do you think are spoilers and not likely to appear in the publisher's book description (e.g., do you only learn about the twins far into the story)?

Kris wrote: "Your description is great, really detailed. Which facts do you think are spoilers and not likely to appear in the publisher's book description (e.g., do you only learn about the twins far into the ..."

I think the spoilers are
1. The fact that the powerful cleaning fluid invented by the scientist was being used to wipe the thief's scent so that police dogs could not track him.
2. The fact that the thief was actually a pair of twins.
3. Then I think some of the disguises the private detective used were only revealed to us at the end of the book as being him in disguise...but I'm not too sure of this actually...

And, yes, to, answer your question and repeat, we learn about the twins far into the story.

Bump, bump, BUMP!!!

Bump

bump, smart detective, twin thieves, bump

How does the scientist (or "inventor"?) come into the story? It sounds like it starts with the robberies.

Just a reminder: the word "twins" may or may not appear in some book descriptions/reviews because this might be a spoiler (see message 12).

Kris wrote: "How does the scientist (or "inventor"?) come into the story? It sounds like it starts with the robberies.

Just a reminder: the word "twins" may or may not appear in some book descriptions/reviews ..."

Yeah, I think the first scene in the book was a guard doing his rounds after closing hours in a department store, and then seeing a figure upstairs (possibly chewing). He gets upstairs and there's no one there. I think there was a guard dog there that night too (I'm not sure of that), and the guard dog could not pick any scent.

How the scientist comes in...errrr, maybe they mentioned him in his lab a few pages after the beginning, being all sciency and forgetful and stuff, with his assistant (one of the thieves, but we don't know that yet...).

Huh, what message 12?

Your message/post #12 above - spoiler 2 mentions the twins.

Kris wrote: "Your message/post #12 above - spoiler 2 mentions the twins."

Oh, got it...☺

b

Removed spoilers from the header.

bump

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Bump period is 30 days, unless you remember new information.

Gbolahan, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

Lobstergirl wrote: "Gbolahan,i

Still searching Lobstergirl, still searching.

I'm almost literally banging my head on a wall about this book right now... 😂

Do you remember about how many pages long the book was?

Rainbowheart wrote: "?"

It wasn't a particularly long book. I'd say 100? 150?

I remember it was probably a hard cover, dust jacket lost...

What country were you in when you read this book?

Tab wrote: "What cou?"

I was in Nigeria (how does that help, I'm curious...I'll probably be asking same thing of other searchers from now on also...🤔)

Thanks for your question. Like I said earlier, it makes me feel like we're getting closer to the answer 😁

That's good to know because it can help narrow down the location of possible publishers.

Do you think it was by a Nigerian author, or imported from another country? Was it in English? What country did it seem like it took place in?

Rainbowheart wrote: ""

🤔

It wasn't by a Nigerian author. Not sure of author gender.
It was imported from another country.
It was in English
Seemed it took place in the UK or the USA.

bump

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