Rebecca Lim – illustratör

Whiffy Newton, real first name Alfred, hardly looks like a crack amateur super-sleuth.

His clothes are too short and too tight. He never gets picked first for sports. And he has poor eyesight.

But he's got his two best friends - Doreen and Paz - and together, the three friends form the detective outfit The Agency.

Until now, The Agency has only handled the discreet enquiries of other put upon children at Kentwood High. But The Case of the Dastardly Deeds sees them take on their biggest, their craziest, their most dangerous, case yet.

Someone is stealing all the trousers in Kentwood and, this time, Whiffy’s hapless inventor father, Dr Bruce Newton, has nothing to do with it. Or does he?

Trousers are being daringly snatched in broad daylight, taken apart, and horribly put back together, so that bizarre, two-toned trousers are appearing all over town—sinisterly nailed to the front doors of some of the city’s wealthiest socialites.

Who is behind these ghastly garment murders and what does it all mean? Can Whiffy and the other intrepid members of The Agency stop the perpetrator before there isn’t a decent pair of slacks left in the whole of Kentwood?

There are disturbing developments going on at Chez Newton - the messy home that Whiffy Newton shares with his father.

His dad's started dating again (er, yuk), and Whiffy's not sure if he trusts his dad's new girlfriend, Vonda, who's just a bit too interested in Dr Newton's work for Whiffy's liking.

And there's a mysterious force at work in Dr Newton's laboratory. Whiffy's almost convinced that it's the ghost of his late mother, trying to tell him something - or is it?

Can Whiffy get to the bottom of the spooky goings-on before his father's laboratory and the whole Newton way of life are utterly destroyed?