Author:  Gómez, Sergio
Title: Quique Hache, detective
Publisher:  Alfaguara juvenil     Publication Date:1999
Pages:  165 pages
Paper price:  $16.65     ISBN:  956-239-086-1
Type:  Fiction     Grade level(s): 6-10
Translation notes:  Not a translation.

Reviewer:  Mark Hall, San Francisco  Public Library
Comments:
Set in Santiago, Chile, this is a fast paced read about a 15 year old boy who earns a correspondence course detective license and quickly gets involved in an unexpectedly dangerous case.  An heiress and local soccer team owner asks him to find her star player, who vanished a week before a key game.  Once Quique begins talking to people, he finds nobody is quite what they seem, and are sometimes far more sinister.  There is plenty of excitement in the form of dodging thugs, narrow escapes, surprising plot turns, and even a mild love interest.   Our detective is helped along by his gregarious nanny, "Gertru",  and a couple of new friends whom he meets in the course of his investigation.The characters are for the most part well drawn... especially Quique and his relationship with Gertru, who took the detective correspondence course along with him, and who nonchalantly moves the case along with numerous clues and leads she gathers using her extensive network of male admirers, girlfriends, and acquaintances around the city.  The city of Santiago is a sort of character here, too, as Quique's travels around through the city's neighborhoods give the reader a real sense of place.  This title is a easy read, and the soccer aspect might garner some reluctant readers.  I didn't have any problem or notice any Chilean regionalisms that couldn't be understood in context.