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Knights in Manhattan: A Reen and Joanie Detective Agency Novel (The Reen & Joanie Detective Agency Series) by Kay DiBianca

Back Cover Copy

A gang of tricky thieves is on the loose in Manhattan, but no need to worry. The Reen & Joanie Detective Agency is on the case. The two pint-sized detectives track the crooks through some of the most famous landmarks in New York, but can the girls decode the strange clues and stop the criminals before they get away?

Hamsters, secret passageways, and a seven-year-old genius named Miles all contribute to this fun, action-packed romp through the streets and buildings of Manhattan.

My Review

Knights in Manhattan is the second book in the Reen and Joanie Detective Agency, and it is just as fun as the first one!

Ten-year-old Reen (short for Irene) and her nine-year-old cousin, Joanie, travel with Mrs. Toussaint (the woman Reen’s father hired to take care of Reen after Reen’s mother was killed in a car accident when Reen was a baby) to New York to visit Reen’s great-aunt Miriam.

Reen sees a headline in a newspaper in the magazine rack on the plane about jewel thieves in NYC. She surreptitiously tears it out and pockets it.

Joanie is terrified of heights so she’s afraid to fly. When they hit turbulence, Joanie panics, and Mrs. T (as the girls call her) takes them to the bathroom. Reen goes in when Joanie is done. Not because she has to use it, but because she wants to explore. She finds a note written in code right inside the trash and takes it, convinced it has something to do with the jewel thieves.

She’s right, of course.

Great-Aunt Miriam is delightful. I want her to be MY aunt! No stuffy old lady here. Her condo is cool, too. There’s a dumbwaiter in the kitchen! With it, Aunt Miriam orders meals from the restaurant in the building. How fun is that? I seriously want one.

Reen wants to ride in it (I would, too) but Aunt Miriam is horrified at the thought. I knew it would come in handy at some point when Reen and Joanie encounter the jewel thieves … and it does! Yay!

Other Fun Things

The girls meet seven-year-old Miles who is staying with his strict and formidable grandmother. Reen isn’t happy at first to have a little kid hang out with them, but then she learns he’s a genius who’s made a map of secret passages in the building.

Secret passages!! Is there any more fun thing than that?

The girls accept him into the Reen and Joanie Detective Agency as their first employee, and together, they work to put clues together. The clues take them to Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and Grand Central Station.

I’m not good at figuring out clues like Reen and Joanie are, but I did figure out how the dumbwaiter and secret passages would help.

The Surprise Twist

There’s always a surprise, isn’t there? And true to mystery form, this story has one, too. (Agatha Christie would be proud.) But I won’t give it away. You’ll have to read it for yourself or to your children!

In Conclusion

Personally, I would have loved more secret passages revealed (Miles hadn’t found all of them), but this isn’t a full-length novel. And there needed to be more focus on the clues. But escaping the bad guys with a dumbwaiter and through secret passages was such fun, I won’t complain.

All in all, it was a satisfying read for me as an adult. I’m sure kids ages 7-12 who love mysteries will thoroughly enjoy it!

It’s available on Amazon, so you’ll be able to get it in time for Christmas!

Read more about Kay DiBianca here!

• Publisher: Wordstar Publishing LLC
• Publication date: September 4, 2025
• Language: English
• Print length: 200 pages
• ISBN-13: ?979-8989482351

Pam Halter is a former home-schooling mom, has been a children’s book author since 1995, a freelance children’s book editor since 2006, and was the children’s book editor for Fruitbearer Publishing until January 2023. She’s the author of Fairyeater, a YA fantasy, and the Willoughby and Friends picture book series (available on her website.) Pam has also published short stories in Ye Olde Dragon Books , the Whitstead Anthologies and Renewed Christmas Blessings. Her first short story won Readers Choice in Realmscapes.  

Pam lives in Southern New Jersey with her husband, Daryl, special needs adult daughter, Anna, and four cats. When she’s not writing, Pam enjoys spending time with her grands, reading, quilting, gardening, cooking, playing the piano, Bible study, and walking long country roads where she discovers fairy homes, emerging dragons, and trees eating wood gnomes.