Sherlock Sam's Orange Shorts Read online

  Because we decided early on that Wendy would be the main character in this story, we knew her inability to grasp Mandarin would have to be a major plot point.

  INSPECTORS SIVA AND LESTRADE

  AND THE IMPROBABLE SITUATION IN MEXICO CITY

  Officer Siva’s (and Adan’s, if we’re being honest) love of Mexican telenovelas (aka soap operas) is what informed most of this story, along with ’80s American cop shows. Mexican telenovelas, like most soap operas around the world, work on an ever-escalating series of improbable (and occasionally impossible) events. They also occasionally have snarky narrators, though we fully admit this was something we took from the American TV show Jane the Virgin.

  Some of Adan’s favourite telenovelas include Muchachitas (Young Women), Alcanzar Una Estrella (To Reach a Star) and Dos Mujeres, Un Camino (Two Women, One Road).

  CHICKEN WING

  AND THE STOLEN JEWELS IN THE LION CITY

  Our superhero story had to star Sherlock Sam, of course. We read an incredible amount of superhero comics, and our favourites include Ms Marvel, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and, of course, Batman. Chicken Wing is modelled after the Batman in pretty much every way, from his costume and gadgets to his crime-fighting style and allies.

  Our favourite part of writing this story was probably coming up with all the superhero names for everybody. We were very proud when we came up with Egg and Omelette for the Robin and Nightwing stand-ins. Also, the Chicken Coop. We are incredibly proud of the Chicken Coop.

  JAMES MOK

  AND THE EXPENDABLE MINIONS IN LONDON

  This is the only story that takes place in the prime universe, and serves as a prequel to our next book, Sherlock Sam and the Fiendish Heist in London. So we hope you paid attention, as it may contain some clues to the mystery in that book.

  We hadn’t seen James since his defeat back in Book 8, so we are very excited to use him again for this story, and in a slightly different way.

  CHICKEN WING

  Secretly the millionaire philanthropist Samuel Tan, Chicken Wing keeps the Lion City safe from criminals and villains, like the Tiger (aka Eliza). He has a team of operatives that fight to keep the city safe, including his best friends, Egg (aka Jimmy) and Omelette (aka Nazhar), and Chili-One (aka Mom), who monitors the city from the state-of-the-art Chicken Coop (hidden within Tan Manor). With their help, Chicken Wing was recently able to take down his arch-nemesis the Mastermind (aka James Mok), finally giving the Lion City some peace.

  CAPTAIN WATSON

  The captain of the RSS Space Dragon is a born leader. He rose up through the Planetary Alliance ranks swiftly because of his keen tactical mind. He handpicked his crew before they set out to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, and he only regrets one or two of those choices. He’s currently tasked with going to Mandai-53 to begin trade negotiations with the Kopi Collective.

  WEN DI

  A student of the mystical martial art of colour-fu, Wen Di aims to be the first female student at a colour-fu academy. Her family realised that she had magical abilities when she used them to try to comb her hair. While she has no problems calling forth primary colours, secondary colours are a bit more difficult for her. She can never remember the Mandarin names for them, even with the help of her little brother Cher Lock.

  JIMMY THE JOLLY

  A perpetually grinning and tripping boy from a nameless village in the nation of Katonglia, he had been training to be a hero, like the three women who raised him. But the Dark Sorcerer ousted King Nazhar from his throne and plunged Katonglia into a darkness full of terrible creatures, such as bed monsters and malfunctioning wardrobes. Jimmy’s mother, Vivian the Valiant, went to try to defeat the Dark Sorcerer along with many other heroes of the realm. Unfortunately, they were defeated, and now Jimmy the Jolly thinks he might be able to succeed where others had failed.

  NAZHAR

  An intelligent boy with a love of history, he decided to build his own time machine to better study the past, although his time travel hardly ever goes according to plan. He once travelled to ancient Egypt and accidentally became a pharaoh, and another time he travelled to 1860s China and nearly had to impersonate the hero Wong Fei Hung because his companion Wendy accidentally knocked him out. Luckily, he wasn’t unconscious for too long.

  SHERIFF MORAN

  The recently-appointed sheriff of the township of Tumbleweed, Sheriff Moran is originally from east of the Mississippi, where he was a police officer in New York and Boston. Like so many others before him, he decided to find his treasure out west, but could not resist the call of law enforcement. Tumbleweed was a one-street town desperately in need of a sheriff after the last two were potatoed into running away. His deputies, Siva and Lestrade, did not want the job, but stayed on under him.

  ELIZA

  A world-renowned explorer and adventurer, Eliza loves to search for the unknown, whether that means uncovering hidden tombs, discovering lost cities, or recovering ancient artefacts. Sometimes, she does all three at once. She has many contacts around the world, including the scholarly Nazhar, a master of history and ancient languages, and Professor Kathryn Tan, a good-hearted smuggler.

  AGENT D

  A member of the clandestine group the Supper Club, which has been tasked with defending the Air-Conditioned Nation, Agent D is often partnered with Agent M and Agent S. He was recruited by Miss Chief because of his engineering prowess. He’s often quite clueless, however, and not always the most helpful agent.

  AGENT M

  A member of the clandestine group the Supper Club, tasked with defending the Air-Conditioned Nation, she is often partnered with Agent D and Agent S, though she is the smartest of all of them. Miss Chief recruited her because of her excellence in biochemistry and martial arts. She loves it when missions call for her to dress up in very fine clothing.

  INSPECTOR SIVA

  A federale—national police—in Mexico City, Inspector Siva is trying to uncover the identity of criminal mastermind El Jefe. Siva has many contacts in the city, in both high and low places, who can sometimes get him information normal police work can’t. Sometimes Siva has to get his hands a little dirty to get that information.

  INSPECTOR LESTRADE

  A relative rookie federale, Lestrade is trying to unmask the identity of Mexico City’s biggest criminal mastermind, El Jefe. She loves the many kinds of tacos Mexico City has to offer, especially the fried insect ones the street markets are famous for.

  JAMES MOK

  Born and raised in London, James moved to Singapore with his parents, and tried to outsmart Sherlock Sam. He failed, and went back to London. James’ intellect rivals Sherlock’s genius, but he cannot be distracted by delicious food. He enjoys cream with his scones and Earl Grey tea, hot. He seems to be planning a comeback in London, but someone has foiled his plans.

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  A.J. Low is a husband-and-wife writing team!

  Adan Jimenez was born in the San Joaquin Valley in California to Mexican immigrant parents. He became an immigrant himself when he moved to Singapore after living in New York for almost a decade. He has worked for comic book stores, book stores, gaming stores and even a hoagie sandwich shop once. He loves comics, LEGOs, books, games (analog and video), Doctor Who and sandwiches.

  Felicia Low-Jimenez has been a geeky bookseller for most of her adult life. She has bought books, sold books, marketed books and now she is trying her hand at writing books. She loves to nap and eat chocolate. She spends most of her free time reading and, when she can afford it, she travels, usually to look for beautiful bookstores around the world.

  Sherlock Sam and the Missing Heirloom in Katong won the International Schools Libraries Network’s Red Dot Award 2013-2014 in the Younger Readers’ Category. Sherlock Sam and the Ghostly Moans in Fort Canning took third place in the Popular Readers’ Choice Awards 2013 in the English Children’s Books category.

  You can find them at sherlocksam.wordpress.com, facebook.com/S
herlockSamSeries and [email protected]

  ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

  Andrew Tan (also known as Drewscape) is a full-time freelance illustrator and an Eisner-nominated comic artist. He illustrates for print ads, magazines and also enjoys storyboarding and illustrating for picture book projects. During his free time, he’s always creating his own comics for the fun of it. In his home studio you’ll find an overflow of art tools of all kinds as he loves experimenting with them. He already has too many fountain pens and tells himself that he will stop buying more. Andrew published his first graphic novel, Monsters, Miracles & Mayonnaise, in 2012.

  BOOK 1 OF THE BATTLE OF THE BRAINS DUOLOGY!

  Look out for Sherlock Sam and the Fiendish Heist in London as the adventures of Sherlock Sam continue!

  In a sudden turn of events, the Fiendish Mastermind calls the Supper Club to London to solve the mystery of a new criminal genius who is even more fiendish than he ever was! Sherlock Sam, Watson and the Supper Club have to race against the clock to discover the brains behind the series of crimes that have left the London police baffled. The thrills and restaurants of London will have to take a backseat as Sherlock Sam and gang come head-to-head with their most devious adversary yet!