By Joan Aiken
Published Jan 2010
One of many books to feature Arabel and her chaotic raven Mortimer. All the neighbours agree that Arabel and her pet raven Mortimer have a lot to answer for when their gardens are sabotaged, only days before the judging of the Rumbury Town Garden Gala. But Mortimer isn’t at all interested in gardens, no: it’s his pocket – the black and white check one Arabel made for him to keep his combs in – that concerns him. It’s been stolen, along with Mr Coughtrack’s garden model-railway stations and all of the Townswomen’s Guild’s highly important knitting patterns, not to mention the security cassette tape which opens the safe-deposit room at the Town Hall…
Mortimer is as determined to rescue his pocket as Arabel is to save her trouble-prone pet from the authorities, and unravel the mystery behind the most unusual theft there’s ever been.