Eleven-year-old Declan McLeod loves a challenging puzzle. So he has been given three complex puzzles to solve in the new mystery series Declan the Kid Detective. Gone are the days of tracking down missing dogs and secret admires. His latest assignments involve culprits with twisted minds who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Joined by his assistant and best friend, Layla Price, Declan is about to discover some puzzles are not so easy to figure out, but if you do, there may be a price to pay. The diamond eyes gingerbread penguin, worth $25,000, set to be donated to a top charity gala event is kidnapped when Samantha Tate's friends learn the recipe to the cookie is worth millions of dollars. With less than one month before the Inspire Children to Read Gala, Samantha hires eleven-year-old Declan McLeod, an investigator, to find the cookie. Declan loves a good mystery, and boy did Samantha hand him a loaded one. With very little evidence to go on, he and his best friend and assistant, Layla Price, interrogate three clever children only to come up with dead-end leads. That is until Declan is presented with a letter. After a major brainstorming session between Declan and Layla, Declan starts piecing the mystery together when left alone. This sets the stage for a surprising revelation in this first who-done-it of the series at an enchanting Halloween party. Not even Samantha could have imagined this. Kidnapping of the Diamond Eyes Gingerbread Penguin is the first of three books of the new mystery series, Declan the Kid Detective.