ALA Booklist

A veteran police officer with a family and a weight problem pairs up with a rough-edged rookie whose procedural bloopers get them kicked off their first investigation they nab the pusher they had been after on their own time. Sound familiar? Evidently hoping that young readers might find it clever, Krosoczka takes this rather trite plotline and positively festoons it with standard cop TV show lines and tropes. It helps that the duo are platypuses, but this does not have the sense of fun found in Krosoczka's Lunch Lady series (soon to be a major motion picture) and is way more confusing. Not even the dozens of cartoon illustrations (not seen in finished form) and an inviting all-animal cast featuring platypus cops carrying boomerangs instead of guns add that much. Still, the author has a huge fan following, and patrons may request this. Hints of malfeasance in high places set up a next episode, so there will be more.

Horn Book

A missing teacher, synthetic fish, and a history of organized crime culminate in a mystery for rookie Rick Zengo and his cantankerous partner on the Kalamazoo City Platypus Police Squad. With juvenile twists such as the duck-billed cops using boomerangs instead of guns, detective-story clichis and tropes abound in this lighthearted whodunit made even more kid-friendly by the black-and-white cartoons sprinkled throughout.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Krosoczka-s considerable fan base will embrace his continuing evolution from picture books and the comics-style Lunch Lady series to his first chapter book, a police procedural that shares the same affable goofiness of his earlier work. Rick Zengo is a rookie on the Platypus Police Squad, paired with grizzled veteran Corey O-Malley (Kalamazoo City-s residents are a melting pot of frogs, turtles, crabs, kangaroos, foxes, and one powerful, possibly corrupt, panda). The two are assigned to investigate some fishy business at the docks, which seems linked to the disappearance of a popular high school teacher. Krosoczka revels in detective clichés (especially hardboiled dialogue) but adds his own charming, G-rated details: the cops use boomerangs not bullets, the local nightclub serves a mean root beer float, and the contraband that-s corrupting teens is... synthetic fish. There-s also a frisson of socioeconomic tension-poorer kids buy fake fish so they-ll be as cool as the kids whose parents can afford -top-shelf seafood--giving this gentle mystery a little intellectual heft to go with the chuckles. Final illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 8-12. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (May)

School Library Journal (Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

Gr 3-6 Followers of Krosoczka's "Lunch Lady" series (Knopf) will be delighted to discover the author's foray into the realm of chapter books. This CSI-style mystery revolves around two platypus police officers. When rookie detective Rick Zengo is teamed up with veteran Corey O'Malley, the relationship is off to a rocky start. The two are assigned to investigate a missing local teacher and an illegal fish trade, and all signs point to the docks. Early clues indicate Frank Pandini, Jr.'s businesses, but Pandini is supposedly an up-and-up businessman (panda) trying to improve his family's reputation. Exuberant Zengo wants to make a name for himself on the Platypus Police Squad and not follow in his legendary grandfather's shadow, but his inexperience threatens the investigation. Details such as the cops using boomerangs to capture the bad guys and the local hangout serving root-beer floats make the mystery delicious fun. Burgeoning with detective clich&3;s, affable characters, and lots of cartoon art, the book will be popular with Krosoczka's fans and amateur sleuths not ready for a darker thriller. Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA