[personal profile] quippe
The Blurb On The Back:

Welcome to the unpredictable world of the Maliks!


Maysa and Musa Malik are twins who are TOTAL OPPOSITES. But when their cookies for a baking competition at the mosque are destroyed, can they become an UNSTOPPABLE DETECTIVE TEAM?

Look out for:
- a floor made of LAVA
- An arch-nemesis called SLIME-AH
- Detective Inspector Norman a.k.a Musa’s best friend
- And a VERY big, out-of-control spiralling LIE …*

* Did we mention that Maysa can be a bit of a drama monster?




Maysa and her twin brother Musa are very different people. Maysa is a day-dreamer who frequently finds herself in trouble (especially with Mrs Hussain, who teaches them in the madrassah they attend at the local mosque after school each afternoon) whereas Musa is quieter and less dramatic. About the only thing they have in common is that they’re both very messy.

When Maysa’s day-dreaming at madrassah results in Mrs Hussain phoning her parents to complain Maysa’s mum and dad decide that she can’t go on a school activity trip to Wales that she’s been really looking forward to. Fortunately the mosque is holding a cookie auction to help people in need so Maysa reckons that if she can make the best cookie that earns the most money from the auction, then it will convince her parents that she’s responsible enough to go on the trip.

Disaster strikes though the day before the auction when almost all the cookies - including Maysa and Musa’s - are destroyed by a mysterious culprit! Determined to find out who did such a nasty thing, the twins - helped by Musa’s best friend and next door neighbour Norman - decide to investigate. The door to the room where the cookies were kept was locked and only a small number of people had a key but the CCTV footage has been damaged so no one can tell who went in.

As the twins struggle to work out the mystery, Maysa faces the added complication of realising that the story she told her friends as to why she couldn’t do the trip to Wales has led to a wild rumour spreading around the mosque about her dad, which even the Imam seems to believe …

Zanib Mian’s new mystery for readers aged 7+ (illustrated by Kyan Cheng) features fun protagonists and Maysa’s insecurity that Musa has other friends than her is well done. I also enjoyed how their Muslim identity is central to the story, as it’s a great way of learning about their faith but as the first in a series this needed more telling to establish backstory (especially Maysa’s antagonism with Slime-ah) and the mystery itself is a limp.

I picked this up because I had previously read Mian’s PLANET OMAR - ACCIDENTAL TROUBLE MAGNET and enjoyed its humour, family dynamics and the way it incorporated Islam into the story.

The good news is that the humour is also present in this book. A scene where the kids at the Madrassah meet the new mosque trustees who have the unfortunate surname Butt and start falling about laughing is nicely played (and forms a neat contrast when they meet the impossibly cool Zayaan Butt who makes jokes about his own name). Also great is the way that Islam is once again central to the story - the events take place over Ramadan and Mian is very skilful at getting across what this means, including the fasting, the prayers, the Iftar meals and the need to perform kind acts and the way they include curious next door neighbour Norman (who is keen to know more and participate and so stands in for any questions the readers may have).

The twins themselves are well drawn. Maysa takes more of a centre stage here and she seems quite a dominant personality - prone to stories and speaking without thinking but also someone who day dreams a lot and has a vivid imagination. However I enjoyed the relationship she has with her brother and especially how she worries that he has friends other than her and what that means for their relationship. Also good is how much she tries to do the right thing, even if it doesn’t always come off and a scene where she’s disappointed with her first attempt to make a unicorn cookie is well done - aided by Kyan Cheng’s skilful, fun illustrations.

Where the book fell down for me though is that for the first book in a series, I was left floundering at times about the relationship between various characters. For example, Maysa has a rivalry with another girl in the madrassah and at school who she calls Slime-ah, but we don’t find out what’s the cause of that (other than a sense that Slime-ah is pretty hoity toity and full of herself) and I wanted to understand what was so bad that Maysa felt moved to give her such an unpleasant nick name. Similarly, when Maysa’s parents get the phone call from Mrs Hussain, I wanted to know a bit more about the pattern of behaviour that led them to feel that they couldn’t let her go on the school trip because the scene that we get (Maysa essentially day dreaming while learning about the Ark and so not being able to answer a question) felt like an over-reaction.

Also disappointing is the mystery itself, which I felt takes a bit too much of a back seat to other events. Also, it’s presented as a locked room mystery but quickly becomes clear that it isn’t really. Given that this is aimed at readers aged 7+ I’m not sure that they would necessarily pick up on this, but those that do like mysteries may find it simple to work out what’s happened and that’s a shame. That said, Maysa, Musa and Norman make a good investigating team and I did enjoy the scenes where they play good cop bad cop.

All in all, I think that this is a mystery series with potential and notwithstanding some minor issues, I’d be interested to reading more about the twins and their detecting adventures.

The Verdict:

Zanib Mian’s new mystery for readers aged 7+ (illustrated by Kyan Cheng) features fun protagonists and Maysa’s insecurity that Musa has other friends than her is well done. I also enjoyed how their Muslim identity is central to the story, as it’s a great way of learning about their faith but as the first in a series this needed more telling to establish backstory (especially Maysa’s antagonism with Slime-ah) and the mystery itself is a limp.

MEET THE MALIKS TWIN DETECTIVES - THE COOKIE CULPRIT was released in the United Kingdom on 31st August 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
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quippe

July 2025

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