THE MYSTERY OF THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE

This is probably as plumply plotted a mystery as you could find all the way back to Augusta Huiell Seaman and it deals with the attempt of Evie to hide her infant sister Joy from a cruel stepfather and to find her grandmother while her mother lies in a coma in a hospital. Pride had followed her fall (the last disreputable marriage; no money) so that Evie knows nothing of her mother's earlier, more respectable past or even the name of the grandmother who lived in the gingerbread house. In an add-a-pearl fashion (an old medal; a photograph album; a locked trunk; jewels, et al.), Evie along with the Jameson boys (who are sheltering Evie and baby Joy) finally find the house and her grandmother. However serialized this sounds when summarized, it's absolutely sure to get and hold the attention of youngsters at this level and the scene this time is Atlanta.