Mystery of the Chemic Tavern

WarrenCabral practised law in Bermuda for 30 years before taking up his pen as authorof fiction for adults and children. Evenbefore his second career as a writer, he had written short stories, plays,pantomimes and the books for two musicals. He was the winner of The Royal Gazette prize for one of his shortstories. His most recent theatrical work was On the Line, staged at The TeaHouse Theatre in London. The LakelandMysteries, of which The Mystery of the Chemic Tavern is the fourth book, is Warren's firstventure into children's fiction.Corryn Webb is a Welsh freelance illustrator and designer based in the rugged mountains beside the North Wales coast in the UK. Living with her husband, children and rescue dogs.With her vivid imagination and eye for detail, Corryn has been lauded for her beautiful award-winning pieces bursting to the rim with creativity. She is fascinated by the beauty, magic, and mythology of the natural landscape of Wales, which regularly inspires her art.

In the addictive mystery novel The Mystery of theChemic Tavern, an enthusiastic crime-solving duo sifts through their town’slegacies in support of a neighbor.In Warren Cabral’s agile mystery novel The Mysteryof the Chemic Tavern, determined sisters uncover a secret in a family ofbrewers.This atmospheric mystery novel opens with the sisterspreparing a display for their school’s Guy Fawkes Day; holiday customs energizethe book’s early chapters, as when people watch fireworks at the pub. Anartistic cousin, Mary, comes to visit, and the girls meet Tom, one of thesurviving heirs of a defunct brewery. Tom hopes to revitalize his familybusiness through microbrewing. Mae and Isla come to suspect that someonetampered with his product, though, causing people to fall ill in their town.Their investigation into the potential sabotage is revealing.The setting is a quintessential English one, and its parishcommunity generates much of the novel’s momentum. Clues are found near awaterfall; the girls attend a car boot sale, go on a shopping trip, and visit amanor. These everyday activities and locales ground the girls’ detective workin plausible circumstances, emphasizing their community ties and countryhabits. And the prose is vivid, fleshing out such sites and routines viaevocative sensory details.The approach to the mystery itself is layered. Isla’s andMary’s artistic pursuits combine with Mae’s logic, proffering appealing lessonson objet trouvés, “periodic sines,” and “prevarications”; often,the case moves forward because of the girls’ broad inquisitiveness. But whilethe prospect of contaminated beer is explained with clarity, and it has nolasting harm, another character’s apparent extrasensory abilities dilute thefocus and disrupt the girls’ own telepathic communicating.While exciting clues appear at measured intervals to injectsuspense, the suspects are too archetypal. Two ex-criminals bumble; Tom’s mainadversary is too easy to spot. Some of the girls’ investigative methods,including Isla’s photographic memory, are exceptional, making them too relianton their gifts and luck rather than thoughtfulness. Further, the confessionthat concludes the book is a too-easy strategy for tying up the book’s looseends, and some of the internal illustrations are blurry and crowd the textrather than complementing it.Reviewed for Foreword Reviews by KarenRigbyOctober 25, 2025"...this is another great addition for newly independent readers looking for an entertaining mystery series to enjoy." LoveReading4Kids