This charmingly goofy, slightly goose-pimply graphic novel is just right for a gently spooky laptime or independent read. Venable brings back the mismatched stars of Hamster and Cheese: Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye #1 (April 2010). Hamisher the hamster had hired Sasspants the Guinea Pig to help solve the mystery of their missing pet store owner's sandwiches--because the "G" in "PIG" had fallen away from the label on her cage, Hamisher took Sasspants to be a P.I. Now Hamisher can't wait to solve another puzzle, so he keeps fabricating them ("This is like the fifth fake mystery you made up this week!" says Sasspants). As with Peter and the Wolf, Hamisher's false alarms cause him to lose credibility, so when all of the mice really do disappear, he has trouble enlisting Sasspants in his cause. That's not all: Hamisher believes there's a ghost in the aisle of their pet shop; he's seen its shadow and felt the telltale cold spot a phantom would inhabit--even Mr. Venezi thinks the aisle is haunted.
Using a palette of muted blues, greens and earth tones, Stephanie Yue plants clues with a wide-panel shot of the pet store's next-door hardware neighbor up for sale, and exploits the comic potential of the pet store owner's fear of ghosts with a one-page image of a newly cleared bookshelf and a sign that reads, "Please enjoy the rest of the shop. This aisle is currently haunted." Yue also has fun with a Philip Marlowe–style get-up for Hamisher, and the hamster's attempts to get Sasspants to wear a matching hat, plus a humorous sequence that chronicles Hamisher's dangerous mission to see if Gerry the snake was the culprit for the missing mice. (A close-up of the hamster shows him--"Gulp"--before he leaps into the snake's cage.) Together, Venable and Yue strike just the right balance between funny and frightening. Youngest readers will appreciate the many visual clues to this puzzle's solution, while slightly older readers who love a good mystery will enjoy putting the pieces together.--Jennifer M. Brown