The Red Blazer Girls

Next up: The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour, by Michael D. Beil (Knopf, 2009.) Sophie, Margaret, and Rebecca are seventh graders at St. Veronica's, a Catholic girls school where they are forced to wear red blazers (hence the name of the series.)

I, too, attended a Catholic girls school and would like to take this moment to personally thank the Sisters of St. Joseph for not making us wear blazers (though we did wear plaid skirts.)

Sophie is in class when she sees a ghostly woman in the window of the adjoining church. She and her friends investigate, and find Ms. Harriman, who is not a ghost but does need help. She has just found a 20-year-old note written to her daughter. It is from the girl's grandfather, who has since died. The note introduces a series of riddles that will lead the girl to her birthday present. The "girl" is now in her thirties and is estranged from her mother. Ms. Harriman asks Sophie and her friends to solve the riddles and find the present, which is likely a valuable treasure since the grandfather was an archeologist.

As the girls solve riddles that involve literature, theater, and math, they are helped by a teacher (who claims his personal hero is the severe Charles Dickens schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, but is in fact a nice guy.) However, for the most part, these academic overachievers solve the riddles on their own.

I liked that this mystery is largely set at the school and church, and their nearby hangout Perkatory--a coffee shop that plays on the old Catholic belief in a place between heaven and hell, where incidently, my cousin believes my late aunt resides. (Purgatory. Not the coffee shop.) I mean, I'm sure a lot of us are going to purgatory, if there is such a thing. But it was the first time I'd heard someone be like: She's happy now. She's in purgatory.

Anyway, this allows, the girls to solve the mystery independently. When the girls' parents are introduced, they are loving, normal adults, that come from somewhat economically diverse backgrounds. Rebecca's mother, for instance, has lost her job as a nurse, which means Rebecca might not get to attend private school next year. I appreciated this portrayal of Catholic school. From my experience, Catholic schools aren't schools for rich kids, they're schools where some parents often pay their last penny to ensure a good education for their kids.

I also enjoyed the plot twist in which somebody else is after the treasure. Is it Ms. Harriman's ex-husband, or somebody else? Honestly, I thought Ms. Harriman was using the girls to steal the treasure all along. She just seemed too kooky to be for real. But as it turned out, she was really just kooky.

Sadly, nobody got murdered in this book. I am trying to review murder mysteries. Happily, this was such a good mystery that it didn't even need a murder. The riddles and word play for some reason reminded me of The Westing Game, perhaps because I am obsessed with that book and everything reminds me of it. It also reminded me of my own Granddad, who wrote quizzes and riddles for me to solve, though, admittedly, they never led to treasure...or did they? Maybe I just never solved the clues. Either way, I did treasure them. They were way over my head, and I appreciated my Granddad thinking I was smarter than I really was. (Where is a friend like Margaret--the smartest of the Red Blazer girls--when you need her?)

One last word, I mentioned these girls are smart. They really drove home that line from What a Wonderful World--"They'll learn much more than I'll ever know." In that way, it differed from The Westing Game, in which characters illustrated the more spacey/distracted problem solving abilities that I am more familiar with.

The verdict: This book is as smart and adorable as its three main characters.