The Red Blazer Girls is a mystery series following four best friends that go to Catholic school together (hence the red blazer uniforms) in New York City. The each is always narrated by Sophie St. Pierre, the ring leader of the group that is funny, funky, engaging, and pretty believable.
Mysteries in this series include the occasional interactive puzzle (and a math lesson) that the reader must solve before Sophie will ‘let’ you read the next chapter. If you’re 12+ and give it a bit of thought and scribbling, you can figure out a puzzle without pulling all of your hair out, unless the puzzle is one of the reoccurring ‘Literature Riddles’ and you are not acquainted with some of the Classics and their main characters.
This series may sound like it’s about a bunch of goody-goody Manhattan girls that run around solving mysteries for the heck of it, but many of the plots have a tie-in to one of the MCs, and they each have a fair amount of ‘Nancy Drewisms’– they do less than legal things; however, they have to suffer the consequences that the old sleuth legend wouldn’t have.
There are some complaints that there is a lot of swearing in these books... in my personal opinion, I was slightly annoyed at how overused 'ohmygod' was when I read through the second book, but after that I didn't notice it. There are a few other non-desirables, but not enough to keep me from hating it or feeling like I was compromising my morals to read it. This is why I put a 12+ rating, because aside from personal preference it is totally safe and a twelve year old is going to be mature enough to read it and deal with it.
Above all, if you’re a well-read stick in the mud adult, you would wave this series off as too random and easy. However, even an 18 year old can enjoy this as an intriguing and well thought out series by a new mystery genius: Micheal D. Beil.
Have you read these books? Post your thoughts and discuss the books by making a comment.
NOMINATED BY: Jessie V.
THE RED BLAZER GIRLS series by Micheal D. Beil
Yearling, 2009-Present, Length Approx 298-330 pages, Age Range: 12+ [for minor language]
Mystery (YA)
#1 The Red Blazer Girls (and The Ring of Rocamadour)
#2 The Vanishing Violin
#3 The Mistaken Masterpiece
#4 The Secret Cellar [December 2012]
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