The Uncommon Detectives

By Mahijit Bhatt

Using London as the backdrop, this book entails the journey of budding detectives who embark on a journey to unveil the heist of a precious stone by the most notorious criminals of London. Interestingly, all the characters are animals and birds, portrayed as if the story treats them as human beings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: May 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781482889734

Mahijit Bhatt

He is a young budding Author who is only 11 years old.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

O ne cold Victorian London evening, everything was as it should have been—the cold winds, the dogs howling, the sound of the creaking doors, and everything else. But no, something was not right, and here the adventure begins. In a jewellery store, three mysterious figures were walking stealthily and quietly, but the figures looked odd. They were very close to the ground and appeared to be walking on four legs. Only when the moonlight shone through the windows could you see that they were cats.

One of them, a ginger tabby whose left hind leg looked damaged, said, ‘I am tired of wearing these metal-like clothes on our chests.’ He looked at down at a metal-like cloth on his chest with a dozen buttons.

Another cat in front of him, who was a tortoiseshell and was completely white and was also wearing a metal-like cloth but surprisingly had the tip of his tail missing, looked back at him and said, ‘They are important, Flame. They will help us if we need to escape.’

‘I know, Snow,’ replied Flame. ‘It’s just that they are so heavy and my stomach pains sometimes while carrying it.’

The third cat, who was a big brown Persian cat and appeared to be the leader (and was also wearing a cloth like the other two), turned around and said, ‘Will you two quit arguing? We have a diamond to steal!’

‘Sorry, boss!’ said Snow. ‘It won’t happen now, I promise.’

The leader grunted and beckoned with his tail for them to follow. The leader pointed to a big red diamond and said, ‘Snow, go and get the diamond.’

‘But, boss,’ protested Snow, ‘what if there is some extra security around?’

‘Oh, be quiet, Snow! Go get the diamond or else.’

Snow gulped and nervously walked up to the diamond, which was perched atop a diamond holder. He jumped up and tried to reach the diamond but missed.

‘Hurry up, Snow. We haven’t got all night,’ the leader said.

Snow tried to reach the diamond again but missed it by a whisker. He thought for a moment, went a few steps backwards, ran ahead, and knocked the stand over. The diamond clattered unbroken and undamaged to the floor, but as the stand touched the ground, an alarm rang out, which made the cats very nervous. Snow hastily put the diamond in his mouth and jogged up to the boss and put the diamond in front of him.

‘Sorry, I didn’t know about the alarm, boss.’

‘Hurry up! And call me by my name,’ said the boss. He put the diamond in his mouth, and the three cats bolted out the door even though the suits would have slowed them down had they not been designed to be light. As the cats bolted out the door, six figures stepped out of the shadows and surrounded them. They were bigger than the cats but were still on four legs and were also enemies. Can you guess who? Yes, they were dogs.

‘What do we do now, boss? I mean Norbert,’ added Flame hastily.

‘Don’t worry, Flame,’ said Snow. ‘I promise Norbert will think of something.’

A black-and-white bull terrier from the six said, ‘Well, it looks like we finally got you three tonight.’

‘I won’t be so sure about that, Bart,’ said Norbert, putting the diamond down. ‘We have escaped many times and will escape tonight as well.’

Bart grunted and said to a white Pomeranian next to him, ‘What do you think about that, Tom?’

‘I don’t know.’ Tom chuckled. ‘The police will be here in a few minutes, and you three will finally be arrested.’ He chuckled some more, and you could hear the police, which were not far off.

A sandy-coloured she-collie said, ‘Well, until they come, give us back the diamond, and we will try to make your prison sentence less uncomfortable.’

‘Think twice about that,’ said Snow. ‘We will rather die than hand over the diamond and all the rest of our loot.’

A Dalmatian behind him said, ‘Well, we will just take it ourselves then, if you please.’

And he bent down to take it and was about to do so when Norbert smacked his paw on to his face, which pushed him back.

The Dalmatian said, ‘Well, we will just have to do this the hard way.’

Then he reached down and plucked Snow from the ground and dangled him from his jaws. He beckoned to a brown Irish setter next to him to do the same. Soon, Snow and Flame were dangling from their jaws and were looking very frightened indeed, and judging by the sound of the siren, the police would be there in