'Bad Machinery' #3 'The Case of the Simple Soul' Quiz

Answer: Shauna and Jack

As hinted to at the very end of book 2, Shauna and Jack have finally admitted that there's some kind of attraction there, and as it does when members of a closely-knit team pair off with other people, the rest of the group are finding it all a bit unbalanced. Linton and Sonny in particular seem to be struggling to cope, as being teen detectives isn't as much fun when there's just the two of you...

Answer: Arson

A spate of barn fires are sweeping the farms around Tackleford, providing work for its well-equipped but intellectually sub-par fire brigade. There doesn't seem to be any robbery above juvenile shoplifting and there's never much murder anyway.
Pet counterfeiting...if it was going to happen anywhere, it would be in Tackleford. Not this time though.

Answer: Mlle. Broussard

Better known as Elodie from the story 'The Bell' in 'Scary Go Round'. Her interaction with Linton and Sonny gives us an interesting part of Sonny's backstory; he lived in France for a year. Hardly too surprising, it's been established that his Dad is loaded.
Elodie Broussard plays a minor supporting role in this story, as we shall see.

Answer: Colm

Colm O'Shaunessy, who skillfully inserts himself into the investigation by simply asking to join. Linton isn't happy; the group is rebalancing and it doesn't need new members. On top of that, Colm is a shoplifter (just for the craic though). He's interested in Lottie; is he in with a chance?

Answer: A troll

Well, they decide he's a troll. He's big, hairy, not an obvious intellectual and he DOES live under a bridge. He opens cans of food with stones and keeps a pet fox which doubles as companion and after he's been swimming, towel. Could this be our arsonist, or just a lonely soul in need of love? The girls decide the latter.
For the other options, the river is a bit shallow even for barges, Tackleford is still waiting for its first Dragon, and the Tackleford Mummy may not exist outside of Lottie's head.

Answer: An animal without a brain

She has a point. Most angry mobs' IQ is the square root of the IQ of its dumbest member, and in Tackleford even more so. I'm compressing quite a few pages into the one question here, but it ends with the troll escaped, moderate property damage and the Fire Brigade crashing two of their fire engines into the river; I did say they were intellectually challenged.
The girls have learned an important lesson; not to play matchmaker until they're a bit older (15 at least!)

Answer: The Chinese peace lanterns he releases sets fire to a tree in Charlotte's garden

Colm accidentally burns down the tree in Lottie's garden, almost setting fire to the house - we seem to have found our firebug! In no time at all, he is sectioned under section 136 of the UK Mental Health Act and finds himself serving hard time in a youth mental ward.
Which isn't at all like prison, my goodness no. As he says in his letter to Sonny, 'I got sent to the nut house, not the big house. You're less likely to get beaten up but more likely to be bitten'.

Answer: Erin Winters, Junior Reporter

As we've established, we can rule out anyone from Tackleford Fire Brigade, although Claire's Dad is the most switched-on of all of them. Equally, Ryan has to keep a professional distance from his charges, so he's out. While Amy has experience at this sort of thing, she's far too busy running a small business and bringing up a small child to be a lot of use. Therefore, it falls to the small-town journalism skills of Erin Winters to acquire the CCTV tapes that show Colm was shoplifting from a store, quite a way from the Eccup Lane barn fire.

Not the greatest defence at law, but it gets him out of the big/nut house.

Answer: Fails to light a candle with a cigarette lighter

Poor troll. He's not the sharpest cold chisel in the tool box.
After a few minutes watching him, Colm realises that the troll doesn't have the mental tools to be the fire starter - and at this point the barn catches fire. The troll escapes and Colm covers himself in glory rescuing the pet fox, getting badly injured in the course of events. The fire brigade put out the fire (and demolish the barn) with their new Japanese fire engine. The case is almost over.

Answer: Little Claire

At a romantic picnic with recovering hero Colm, a magnifying glass, box of matches and a big can of lighter fluid fall out of Claire's bag. This is known to British law enforcement as 'going equipped for arson'.
It turns out that Claire was always afraid that her Fire Chief Dad would die in a fire, so setting fire to things was her way of being in control of fire, which is both rather sweet and extremely scary. As Colm says, 'Love. It's like being tied to a big mad train.'