THE CASE OF THE SCARLET SNAKEBITE

A plucky 12-year-old tries to save her mother’s business.

Avid Agatha Christie fan Amber Adler is determined to find criminals at the Cozy Koi Bed-and-Breakfast. She believes that doing so will reunite her separated parents by bringing her “world-famous detective” Dad back to their small town from New York City. Numerous false accusations later, Amber is no closer to catching a culprit. The arrival of the wealthy Willoughbys for a family reunion piques her interest. Ignoring Mom’s directive—“no creeping, no peeping, no prying, no spying”—she listens in on a guest’s cryptic phone call and infers it to be a plot to murder E.B. Willoughby, family patriarch and owner of the Scarlet Snakebite, a ruby worth $6.2 million. Terrified but excited, Amber scrutinizes the guests during their cocktail party and rummages through their belongings during turndown service. Her feverish sleuthing and warning about his safety endear her to E.B., who enlists her to work the case and protect him. But when someone steals the ruby, Amber’s mom is framed. With help from Tai, her theater kid friend, and librarian Mrs. B, Amber solves the case, learning hard truths about herself and her family along the way. First-person narrator Amber, who reads white, is clever, humorous, and endearing, and readers will feel all her emotional ups and downs. Morrell includes small details that young sleuths will enjoy noting as they try to solve the case alongside Amber.

Intelligent and funny, just like its narrator.