Fun Mystery Pick: Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile

Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile
by Marcia Wells
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2014
240 pages
ISBN: 9780544238336

Eddie Red Undercover is that one middle grade book that will make you happy to be a kid or to be a kid again (for some of us)! It's great fun, packed with nerd-i-ness, art,  history, museums, New York's artsy charm and bustle, a great father/son duo who share some great moments, a crusty old New York detective who has a heart of gold underneath it all, and a mystery worth uncovering, plus a few serious-ly strange goons who deserve what they get.

Edmund  (code name "Eddie Red") is lucky (or cursed) enough to be blessed with a photographic memory; he says it's just that he remembers details that other people don't notice, for example, someone's name on their nametag or which side they part their hair on. He is witness to a crime in the alley and sees the assailant escaping. He is able to convince the police sketch artist that he can sketch the perp's likeness. When Eddie takes up the charcoal pencil, he draws the likeness of a known art thief the cops have been trying to bust.

Eddie and his father are offered a deal. Eddie can hang around art galleries and watch people using his particular skills to see if anything or anyone seems "off." His father will pretend to be a tourist but be within sight at all times. Eddie will be paid minimum wage for his hours, but if they crack the stolen art case, his expensive private school tuition will be paid by the police department.

Eddie meets Detective Bovano who is not exactly a warm and fuzzy person. Bovano doesn't want to work with a kid--even a genius like Eddie. Bovano has great fun in constantly calling Edmund by the wrong name "Eddie" and adds the "Red" himself. "Eddie" doesn't really seem to mind as long as he can earn the tuition to stay in school with his best nerd friend Jonah.

Surveillance heats up and Eddie is in danger. The art ring is out for a big heist and it's up to Eddie to figure out the puzzle. The ringleader has a thing for puzzles and Eddie (with Jonah's help) is up to the challenge of breaking the code.

Highly, highly recommended for any mystery fan! Great fun, great story, great character!

Grade 5-up.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Book Giveaway: Money Run

I have 3 copies of this great new heist novel up for grabs!

Click here for the book trailer

see my full review here
Money Run by Jack Heath

There's $200 million sitting in a corporate building, and Ash Archer has to get her hands on it. She's a teen thief and not just any teen thief! Ash is a pro and takes on risky jobs and comes out unscathed. With her uber-smart computer geek sidekick Benjamin, they plan on getting in unnoticed, stealing the dough and walking out.
You won't want to miss this book! It's a must read! I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting....

For your chance to win, simply post a comment to the blog. Include your first name, city, state, and email contact. Deadline for posts is February 27 at noon MST. Winners will be chosen randomly by Randomizer and contacted by me on February 27. Please check your email on that date. Winners have 24 hours to contact me with their mailing addresses. Books will ship from Texas courtesy of Scholastic and Lauren.

Good luck and start posting! Pamela

Mystery Pick: Madhattan Mystery

Madhattan Mystery
By John J. Bonk
Walker ( Bloomsbury)
2012
292 pages

Fun, free-spirited, and fantastic, Madhattan Mystery is a madcap mystery adventure in New York City.

Lexi and Kevin McGill travel by train to New York when their father marries step-mother Clare and takes a trip to Europe. The kids will stay with their Aunt Roz, an eccentric, over-the-top actress—think Auntie Mame and you’ll have Roz.

While at Grand Central Station, Lexi steps into the fabled Whispering Gallery, where a whisper from one corner of the giant room can be heard hundreds of feet away due to the acoustics. Lexi overhears two mysterious men whispering about a secret heist and she overhears “needle, track sixty-one, Grand Central, oval disk, park, jewels.” Lexi knows these guys are up to no good.

The next day’s newspaper confirms her fears. Cleopatra’s fabled jewels are missing from the “Queen of the Nile” exhibit. Lexi feels terrible. She may know who did it, but how does she convince grown-ups? She mentions her plight to her younger brother Kevin and snarky, flippant, abrasive "friend" Kim Ling Levine, a girl who lives in Aunt Roz’s building. Kim is a wonderful character—she’s flippant, feisty, fierce, and near-genius! Her dream is to be a news reporter, and she’s unstoppable when tracking down clues.

The tween threesome finds track sixty-one and follow clues to find the jewels. The thieves know who Lexi is and where she lives. The kids will have to be careful to solve the crime and put the bad guys behind bars before the bad guys are onto them. Can three tweens solve “The Crime of the Century” and collect the reward?

I loved Aunt Roz—she is the epitome of a bright Broadway star whose with moxie—a middle aged actress still chasing the dream but ending up with smaller and smaller parts. She knows the score but won’t let it get her down. She’s like the Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Lexi is cute and a red-head—finally! A red head protagonist with strength and wit has been missing in kid lit for a long time. And what can be said of Kim Ling—I wanna be like her when I grow up!

Girls and mystery lovers will devour Madhattan Mystery .

Highly, highly recommended grades 5-up. No language.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Uncommon Criminals

Uncommon Criminals (A Heist Society Novel)
by Ally Carter
Disney (Hyperion)
2011
298 pages

Vibrant, exciting, clever, quirky, and fun, Uncommon Criminals once again finds Katarina (Kat) Bishop deep in the world of white collar thievery. Her family, you see, has always been known as the best art thieves in the world. When a Rembrandt is rifled or a Picasso is pinched, Kat's family is likely to be the brains behind that nefarious business.

When an elderly widow contacts Kat with a strange request, Kat's interest is piqued. She will need to break into a super-secure building with the latest in CIA cameras and ex-CIA agents as security guards and steal the most infamous jewel in the world, the Cleopatra emerald--97 karats of sublime beauty, but a jewel with such perfect beauty comes with a cursed history. Everyone who has possessed it has died soon after.

Hale, Kat's best male friend and "almost" boyfriend and wealthy partner in crime is adamant; Kat cannot take this "job" without him and Gabrielle, Kat's beautiful and bewitching cousin. The three teens brainstorm and "case the joint"--which means--for all you novice crime fans--check out the security and day-to-day, minute-to-minute operations of the auction house where the emerald will arrive.

Next the teens are boarding a jet for a quick globe-trotting trip to the Alps to pick up a fake emerald from an estranged, and quite strange, even beyond eccentric, Uncle Charlie, the best art forger in all the world who just so happens to have a perfect fake of the Cleopatra gem. Back in New York, Uncle Charlie's twin brother, Uncle Eddie shows up and not only warns Kat that the Cleopatra is cursed, it is forbidden. None of this is enough to stop a determined teen-age art thief from stealing the rock and returning it to its home country of Egypt and making an old widow's wishes come true.

The Cleopatra emerald was part of a huge archeological find unearthed nearly a century ago by the parents of Constance Miller, the old woman who relates her story to Kat. The young assistant of the dig stole all the artifacts from the dig, selling them to the highest bidders world-wide with no concern for history or antiquity. The thief's grandson is among the world's richest men, one Oliver Keller, the owner of the world's largest antiquities firm. The Cleopatra stone rightfully belongs to the woman's parents, but battling the man in court for 12 long years,Mrs. Miller decided the only way to return the emerald to Egypt was to have a very gifted thief lift the stone for her and she enlists Kat and her friends.

Once the jewel is delivered, imagine Kat's dismay when she realizes she has been conned. The Constance Miller who met her and told her story of woe was an imposter! Now it's up to Kat to grab the emerald again. The adventure takes the teens to Lyon, France and Monte Carlo, Monoco in search of the scammer and a shadow ghost named Visily Romani, a figure from Kat's past who has a long history of masterful heists.

Sheer fun and suspense with a sweet little near-romance thrown in, Uncommon Criminals will please readers who like a well-planned caper. Both male and female readers will likely appreciate the fast-paced plot; girls will find Kat irresistible. Ally Carter's first book in the series, Heist Society, has been picked up by Hollywood and is in the capable hands of actress turned prolific director Drew Barrymore. Fans are in for a wild ride.

Highly, highly recommended for readers ages 12 and up who love adventure, mystery, globe-trotting, and a good crime caper.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I purchased this book for my library. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.