title: Friday Barnes, Girl Detective (Friday Barnes Mysteries)
author:  R. A. Spratt 
description: Gr 46Nine-year-old Friday Barnes is used to being invisible. In fact she works hard at it. But when she uses the $50,000 she earned for solving a bank robbery in order to attend the exclusive Highcrest Academy, she discovers that her usual drab brown cardigans actually make her stand out from the other well-dressed students. She is soon noticed for another reason: her uncanny intellect and ability to solve crimes. Before long, she finds herself with a number of students willing to pay for her detective work, as well as her first nemesis: the handsome Ian Wainscott. Eventually even the headmaster asks for her help investigating sightings of a terrifying beast-man in the nearby swamp. The strength of this novel lies in its quirky, tongue-in-cheek writing style and pervasive humor. The characters are all delightfully eccentric, and middle grade readers will especially enjoy Friday's Holmesian analysis of the various crimes and the criminal's flaws, as well as the lengths she is willing to go in cracking the case (one episode has her trailing the school dog and sending his poop off to a lab in order to prove that he ate a fellow student's homework). The final mystery, focusing on the swamp yeti, is reminiscent of Scooby-Doo, with a surprise villain. The book ends with a cliff-hanger, followed by a teaser chapter from the sequel. Gosier's cartoony black-and-white drawings add appeal for a broad audience, although the vocabulary may make this a better fit for stronger readers. VERDICT A good choice for voracious readers who enjoy a blend of humor and mystery.Ashley Larsen, Pacifica Libraries, CA
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  The Locked Drawer Mystery  
    
  
  This page formatted 2004 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  
  # The Locked Drawer Mystery
  
  
  ### Ellis Parker Butler
  
  
  This page formatted 2004 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  That afternoon Dick Prince and Art Dane could not come to the
  
  
  meeting of our Detective Club because they had to attend a meeting of
  
  
  the sports committee at the high school. They said they might come
  
  
  later. There was nothing for us to detect that week so we settled down
  
  
  on Dot Carver's porch to read a few chapters of a mystery story.
  
  
  “You read a chapter first, Madge,” Betty Bliss said, handing me the
  
  
  book, and I had just opened it when I saw a girl stop at the front
  
  
  gate. She hesitated, looked at us uncertainly, then opened the gate and
  
  
  came up the walk. She was no one we knew. She was a plain-looking girl,
  
  
  quite simply dressed and old enough to be through high school, but what
  
  
  we all noti