This volume contains three mystery stories: The Great Pie Robbery, The Supermarket Mystery, and The Great Steamboat Mystery. In these stories, two detectives named Sam Cat and Dudley Pig must figure out who stole the cherry pies, who stole food from the grocer, and who stole the pearl necklace from Mrs. Pig. There are action-packed chases, funny disguises, and all kinds of surprises to make you laugh at these crazy animals! Can you help Sam Cat and Dudley Pig solve the mysteries? Children will laugh at that silly situations and enjoy the detailed illustrations.

The Great Pie Robbery was my son's favorite book when he was five. He checked it out of the library so many times that finally the librarian GAVE it to him. He's 36 now, and he still has it.

So yesterday, I read it to my five-year-old grandson for the first time. And for the second time, and the third, and the fourth. Back to back. In one sitting. Then he took it to bed with him.

What is it about this crazy book? If I encountered it in a library, I'd glance through it and reject it as goofy and inconsequential. But my son, and now my grandson, think it's the BEST BOOK EVER. And here are the questions my grandson asked last night as we were reading it: "Why are there robbers? Why do people steal things? What do we do with robbers when we catch them? How can we stop them? Why are some people bad? Why didn't they have enough food?"

Goofy? Inconsequential? No way. This is why adults, myself included, shouldn't be dogmatic about what kids should read.

By the way, I had another son who was indifferent to the book, as was my daughter. Mileage varies. But to certain five-year-old boys, this book is the best book ever. Some of the lines in the story became family quotes, used at many silly occasions, such as "No, we are sitting on our own hats."

The current edition contains two more mysteries which were originally separate books. The other two are pretty good, too. ( )

I have a very nostalgic love of Richard Scarry and I also love mysteries - this book was made for me! It's basically three picture-book length stories divided into three chapters, each with a different mystery to solve. Sam Cat and Dudley Pig are on the case of who stole the cherry pies, who stole food from the grocer, and who stole pearls from Mrs. Pig.

All in all, these are very enjoyable stories - there's some subtle clues given throughout, but they're mostly red herrings - don't expect to solve the case before our heroes do! The drawings are typical Scarry - lovely details, very humorous. My only complaint is that I wish the pages of the book had been bigger so that the drawings were allowed to take center stage - sometimes they feel a bit cramped on smaller-than-average picture book pages. ( )