I simply had no idea HOW important they were, or that the Pinkwater fascination with this particular pastry dated back to the mid-1980s. Having fallen in love with Irving and Muktuk, two muffin-stealing polar bears whose (mis)adventures are chronicled in Pinkwater's Bad Bears books, I was already aware that muffins play an important role in the oeuvre of this brilliant children's author.

Muffin fiends can barely resist pastry in any form - but most especially, they are mad for muffins!' Luckily, our composer-hero knows how to win an operatic duel, a skill which comes in handy when he confronts Don Pastrami.

As Inspector Le Chat informs Mozart: 'The muffin fiend is the most dangerous sort of criminal. This hilarious little book, with its tongue-in-cheek tribute to muffins, Mozart, and extraterrestrials, is full of those brilliant comic exchanges for which Daniel Pinkwater is so well known. Don't be put off by the computer 'dot-print' style illustrations - even they will begin to seem hysterical after a while.Show More around Vienna, from the Municipal Muffin Bakery to the Wienerwald, Mozart begins to suspect that their quarry - the mysterious Don Pastrami - is not of this world. Simply put, The Muffin Fiend, now sadly out of print, is a book every Pinkwater fan needs to peruse. As the investigative duo hotfoot around Vienna, from the Municipal Muffin Bakery to the Wienerwald, Mozart begins to suspect that their quarry - the mysterious Don Pastrami - is not of this world. When muffins begin disappearing all over Europe, Inspector Le Chat of the French police is dispatched to Vienna to enlist the aid of Herr Mozart, who - when he's not composing brilliant musical works such as The Magic Prune - is known to be a top-notch sleuth.

The Muffin Fiend by Daniel Pinkwater