Her dad is always out of town on business, and her mother left with her boyfriend to teach yoga in Santa Fe, so Minerva is being raised by her three older brothers. A self-reliant expert on figuring things out, she is, in fact, a mystery solver. In the second of a projected series, a classmate of Minerva’s calls for help in finding a rare red diamond stolen from her ring. Corgi dogs, homing pigeons, an electronics class, Catholic school, kidnapping and a movie set aid and abet the tangled plot. Lots of IMing, cell phones and contemporary props keep the story current. References to actions in Minerva Gets a Clue (2005) fill in bits of background, but this title can stand on its own. Unfortunately, while the cover photo of a cute Corgi is appealing, it also may lead readers to think that the dog is Minerva. But this fairly typical teenager will take her place next to Nancy Drew as a prime crime case-cracker. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-58234-678-X
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
When aptly named Phin Chase witnesses a murder in brutal Pennsylvania coal country in 1875, he knows at once he’ll be blamed. Aren’t the murderers Sleepers, Irish vigilantes at war with the coal bosses? They run Phin’s world, and their leader, Ned Plume, takes charge of the chase to catch him. Plume’s lover inadvertently makes it worse for Phin by handing him Plume’s wallet, which contains “six men’s lives”—incriminating names on a slip of paper. Though the clever actions of his old friends help spirit him out of town, Phin isn’t safe—a mysterious stranger named Fraser joins the hunt, with a black stallion that seems to be able to hunt by smell. The story’s beginning is hard to follow, but as Chase gains momentum, the action and nuanced writing carry the reader pell-mell to a wholly believable end. Haas’s best yet for older readers. (Historical fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-06-112850-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2007
Bruchac (The Journal of Jesse Smoke, p. 655, etc.) sets this short nail-biter, based on a Mohawk legend—about a man with an appetite so insatiable that he eats himself down to bones, then goes after his relatives—in modern New York state. Despite her protests, when Molly’s parents suddenly disappear, she’s handed over to a tall, thin stranger claiming to be her great-uncle. Molly can’t convince anyone, except a sympathetic but powerless teacher, that she’s in danger. But as she is locked into her new room each night, seldom catches even a glimpse of her captor’s face, and discovers that he has a closed-circuit TV camera trained on her door, she recalls a scary tale her Mohawk father tells. She also begins having strange dreams: of being pursued, and of a rabbit who offers warnings and guidance. Those dreams turn real when she escapes, finds her parents imprisoned in an adjoining building, then leads her captor on a desperate run through dark woods to a (perhaps final) confrontation on a high, rickety bridge. Bruchac adds believable details, vigorously cranks up the suspense, and pits a deliciously ghastly creature who likes to play with his food against a resourceful young heroine who draws both on courage and cultural tradition to come out on top. A natural for under-the-blanket reading. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-029075-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2001
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