Max Booth Future Sleuth – Film Flip

Max Booth Future Sleuth – Film Flip by Cameron Macintosh and Dave Atze

(Big Sky Publishing) RRP $12.99 PB ISBN: 9781922265104

Reviewed by Jeffery E Doherty

Set in the year 2424, Max Booth and his sleepwalking robo-dog Oscar have escaped from the Skyburb 7 Home for Unclaimed Urchins and found a home in a crate in the storeroom of the Bluggsville City Museum. Luckily, Jessie, the supervisor of the storeroom lets them live there. On occasions she even gets Max and Oscar to use their sleuthing powers to help find and identify rare historical treasures.

In this story, Max, Oscar and Jessie investigate a strange cylindrical object that turns out to be a 400-year-old film canister from the time before digital cameras. If there are images on the film, they would be rare, and valuable. Unfortunately, there are others who will stop at nothing to get the film. Max must outsmart the secretive members of the Bluggsville East Photographic Society, as well as Captain Selby and his goons from the Unclaimed Urchin Recapture Squad. 

 

This is a fun and exciting book for young readers of adventure stories. The story is fast, quirky and although written for children, adults who read it would find the story nostalgic. The book is full of cool black and white illustrations by Dave Atze that help the reader imagine the characters.

Film Flip is the fourth book in the Max Booth Future Sleuth series, but it can be read as a stand-alone novel. Other titles in the series have Max investigating even stranger things like audio cassette tapes, postage stamps and even the concept of selfies.

This is a great concept for a children’s book series full of fun characters and interesting topics. I would highly recommend this book to young readers and adults who want to reminisce about the good old days.