Oh, this really made me giggle! I love your Lestrade. He's never really been a character I've given an awful lot of thought to, so I'm particularly impressed this was so engaging. Great plot too, and the boys are delightful. Most people seem to really struggle with writing kids, making them horribly precocious or stupid. Thanks!

I love your portrayal of Insp. Lestrade & family and this story is just fantastic. It had me both laughing and dreading what my nephew might bring home when he's a bit older.

lol!!:) Great ending:)

my brother was infamous for bring home things that weren't supposed to live in a house - snakes that escaped only to crawl out of tvs later...a blue plated lizard that he left in the bathtub...tadpoles that 'disappeared' after morphing into frogs...and a tank full of 'larvee' that turned into mosquitos:)

"Martin had a very finely attuned sense on when someone liked a bit of a quarrel. He smiled from across the tablecloth. 'No. If I’m going to be working in crime, I’d like to be able to arrest people.'"

*applauds* Well played, Martin!

Twenty-five pounds? They're rich! I'm guessing Martin thought the cloud cover would be dark enough for that creature. :)

oh god... let me guess, they found the really big one?? good thing their father is a policeman - looks like those boys will need a division of their own just to keep track of them as they get older!

thanks for yet another great story!

LOL. Cute kids! You need to write more with them.

Industrious little fellows, aren't they? xD

I look forward to, someday, your stories being upheld as examples in literature classes across the country.

I've cried from laughter and emotion in the last two days just on your stories alone, and for that I very sincerely thank you. This last chapter especially was hysterically funny. Wonderful stuff, as it always is.

Oh lordy lordy lordy.


I was going to add more but . . . what more can I possibly say?

Other than "delightful story."

(cough, hack, snort, guffaw, ROTFL!) Did I say I LOVE these boys?

Oh, Clea! You can kill and clean a turtle but you balk at a salamander? (I'm guessing the skin would just dissolve into edibility when cooked, it's so thin. and she said just what Nick said she would.)

So 'hellbender salamander" and "snot otter" isn't polite enough? What about "grampus"? Personally I like "allegheny alligator."

As always, superb. Very easy to picture and very enjoyable. xD

*shrieks with laughter* That line about the weather! I knew it! Although I have no idea what they caught...

Oh, bravo. "Lestrade laughed till he cried." So did I. Thank you for having such wit and grace of pen (keyboard?) to share. And if any of this has some basis in life, you lead a far more interesting one than I.

Somehow I missed this chapter, but it's great as always.
I still really really wonder what the mysterious creature is.
And how DO you kill a sea turtle?