Title: Spark

Written by: M G Leonard 

Cover illustrated by: Paddy Donnelly

Map illustrated by: Laurissa Jones

Published by: Walker Books

Another exciting read by M G Leonard. I particularly like the great unique selling point of being about a group of young ornithologists who solve crimes, using their birdwatching skills. Pure genius. Spark is the second book in this crime adventure series and this time, the story is from Jack’s point of view.

On his way to meet his best-friend Twitch (Vernon) and the other Twitchers at their secret hideout in Aves Woods Jack discovers an injured cat. Despite the cat lashing out and scratching him he carries it over a mile to the nearest vet where it can be treated. The vet informs him the cat has been shot and it is not the first cat in the area to be shot. The first cat died. The owner of the cat, Colonel Mustard, asks jack to find out who is shooting the cats. Jack is excited about solving the mystery and believes it is the perfect quest for the Twitchers over the Autumn half-term. To Jack’s dismay his best friend does not believe him and is much more excited about the fact a rare Lammergeier vulture had been spotted by the Twitcher grapevine and is heading their way.

Spark is a story about what it means to be a true friend. It was great to learn more about Jack and his venture into twitching and finding his spark bird. Whilst searching for clues to solve the mystery of who shot Colonel Mustard jack uncovers an even bigger crime and they must all pull together to catch the criminals.

A brilliant book for all middle-grade readers. The plot zips along and will keep the readers reading until the end.

I have previously reviewed this book on NetGalley and Goodreads.