Thirteen-year-old Volker Berchtwelt is out for revenge. Almost one year earlier, his older brother Benek was arrested for the murder of his estranged girlfriend. When Volker gave Benek an alibi, no one believed him, and Benek was convicted. Thanks to Volker's pleading, private investigators Isaiah Funderburke and Nerissa Kaiming start their own inquiry into the case, but when tragedy strikes, Volker snaps. Drawing inspiration from Roald Dahl's Matilda and South Park, Volker plots to humiliate and destroy everybody responsible for the guilty verdict. But a diminutive, ticked-off kid can't turn the criminal justice system upside down...can he?
Chris Chan is a writer, educator, and historian. He works as a researcher and "International Goodwill Ambassador" for Agatha Christie Ltd. His true crime articles, reviews, and short fiction have appeared in The Strand, The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Mystery Weekly, Gilbert!, Nerd HQ, Akashic Books' Mondays are Murder webseries, The Baker Street Journal, The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, Masthead: The Best New England Crime Stories, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, and multiple Belanger Books anthologies. He is the creator of the Funderburke and Kaiming mysteries, a series featuring private investigators who work for a school and help students during times of crisis. The Funderburke short story "The Six-Year-Old Serial Killer" was nominated for a Derringer Award. His first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind "A Scandal in Bohemia," was published in 2020 by MX Publishing, and he is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock's Secretary and its sequel Nessie's Nemesis. His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter (Level Best Books) was nominated for the 2022 Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction. Murder Most Grotesque, Sherlock's Secretary, and his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him & Other Sherlock Holmes Stories: The Complete Collection were all nominated for Silver Falchion Awards.
