The Mastermind Plot

February 1, 2012
After assisting her uncle, Detective Bruce Snow, solve a mystery at the Rosemount Hotel in The Midnight Tunnel (2011), aspiring sleuth Suzanna Snow visits her paternal grandmother in Boston, where she's immediately immersed in a perplexing case of arson and art theft. Arriving at her grandmother's elegant townhouse, Zanna discovers Uncle Bruce still sees her as the "pesky eleven-year-old girl who'd undermined his case at the Rosemount and had made a fool of him." To Uncle Bruce's dismay, Zanna becomes involved in the Horne fires case when Adele Horne, her classmate at Miss Lydia Doucette's Academy for Young Ladies, enlists her help to resolve a string of sinister warehouse fires. Adele's wealthy father owns the burned warehouses, where he stored valuable works of art. As she tackles the complex case, Zanna's pursued by a stranger who reveals himself as Matthew Leighton, her long-lost maternal grandfather, a master thief and Uncle Bruce's chief suspect. Conflicted over her grandfather's disturbing past, Zanna finds herself in a perilous position as she relies on her instincts to unravel the twisted case. Set among Boston's staid brownstones in 1904, the suspenseful plot unfolds from Zanna's first-person perspective, punctuated by her pithy observations. Fans of Suzanna Snow's first mystery will cheer her latest adventure. (Historical mystery. 8-12)

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February 1, 2012

Gr 4-6-This sequel to The Midnight Tunnel (Scholastic, 2011) stands on its own as an appealing mystery with a plucky young sleuth. Suzanna Snow, 11, sets off for Boston to spend time with the grandmother she hardly knows. The city is quite different from her home in a seaside town in New Brunswick but Zanna finds it exciting. Her famous detective uncle, who resents her presence, is on the case of some missing artwork, and Zanna cannot help but investigate as well. Aided by her cousin Will and a testy new schoolmate named Adele, she is partly responsible for solving the mystery. Her prickly relationship with Adele leads to some comical situations as do her lack of skills in terms of how girls in 1904 are expected to behave. Fans of Nancy Springer's "Enola Holmes" series (Philomel) will be happy to add Zanna Snow to their list of quirky, bright, and determined female detectives.-B. Allison Gray, Goleta Public Library, CA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2012
Grades 4-7 Suzanna Snow, last seen at her New Brunswick home in The Midnight Tunnel (2011), is now in Boston, staying with her grandmother. Zanna's wish to become a detective at the turn of the last century seems a reach, but she's been inspired by her uncle Bruce, who's a well-known sleuth. Unfortunately, Bruce disdains Zanna and her dreams. Now that she's in closer proximity to him, however, she hopes they might form a bond over his latest caseart theft. Then a surprise is revealed, and Zanna gets a better understanding of why she is not Uncle Bruce's favorite person. The mystery here is a little less kid-friendly than the last book, but Zanna's partners in crime (classmate Adele and Uncle Bruce's apprentice, Will) provide solid characters to root for. A dramatic ending adds an extra dollop of excitement.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)