ALA Booklist (Sun May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

At Flytrap Detective Agency, Inspector Flytrap awaits phone calls for "BIG DEAL mysteries." Though a Venus flytrap may not appear to be an obvious choice for a detective, he's got a necktie, a skateboard, and an assistant named Nina, who happens to be a goat early, this plant is a professional. Angleberger established his aptitude for finding kids' funny bones with his Origami Yoda series, and he doesn't hold back in this wacky new series for elementary schoolers. This slim volume contains three mini mysteries, all comically illustrated by Newbery Honor Book author Bell (El Deafo, 2014). Inspector Flytrap's first case takes him to an art museum, the second to a bakery, and the third to a botanical garden. Running gags and gross-out humor will keep readers in stitches, with Nina acting as "straight goat" to the more animated detective en she is not eating the evidence, that is. Bell's cartoonish illustrations appear on almost every page, ramping up the laughs. This riotous read publishes simultaneously with book two in the series, Inspector Flytrap in the President's Mane Is Missing. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-sellers in their own rights, Angleberger and Bell are sure to draw a crowd as a creative team. Plus, they are touring!

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5 Only Angleberger and Bell could make a Venus flytrap and a goat a viable combination as a mystery-solving duo, as they do in this heavily illustrated new chapter book series. Inspector Flytrap (never "Mister Flytrap," as he often corrects clients) and his goat assistant, Nina, run Flytrap Detective Agency. Flytrap's interested only in solving "BIG DEAL" mysteries, while Nina seems motivated purely by her ravenous appetiteindeed, she has a bad habit of occasionally eating evidence. The potted inspector makes his way about town on a skateboard, pushed by his hungry, sarcastic goat colleague. Each short section focuses on a different mystery (a blob on a da Vinci painting, a stinky shoe on top of a cookie bakery, and a missing rose at Snooty a la Tooty Gardens) that ends with hilarious results.

Horn Book (Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Tough-talking and cerebral Inspector Flytrap (a Venus flytrap) runs the Flytrap Detective Agency. His sidekick Nina, a goat, is deadpan, cynical, and good in a crisis. Their cases--in three easy-to-read mystery stories--involve art restoration (and da Vinci's boogers), stinky cookies, and a missing rose. Generous illustrations spilling across the pages humorously set the mean-streets, noirish scene.

Kirkus Reviews

Inspector Flytrap is here to solve your "BIG DEAL" mysteries…foolishness in every case file guaranteed.Inspector Flytrap may be a Venus flytrap, but the carnivorous plant is also trying to become the greatest private detective ever grown. Inspector Flytrap lives in a pot and can leave the office only with the help of assistant Nina the Goat, always hungry and frequently unimpressed. She puts the inspector's pot on a skateboard and pushes it around town. Calls come from many of the town's animal denizens, but the inspector spurns small cases. Lulu Emu's request for assistance at the art museum seems important enough to put the inspector on the case—but contrary Nina's fondness for going the wrong way down busy, one-way streets makes for a hair-raising start. At the museum, Lulu takes them to the Top Secret Art Lab, where they are shown the only flower painting Leonardo da Vinci ever painted: there's a mysterious yellow glob stuck to the masterwork. Nina tastes it. And after a few simple questions, the intrepid plant detective solves the explosive (and slightly gross) case. Angleberger and Bell team up for a goofy, easy chapter-book series kickoff. The cases (in addition to the Leonardo enigma, there's a case involving a fetid cookie factory and an AWOL rose) are full of silly characters (and solved with silly solutions), and Bell's ample cartoon line drawings pair perfectly.Three cases and lunch! What more could you need? Happily, Volume 2, The President's Mane Is Missing, publishes simultaneously. (Humor. 6-9)