cover image Scene of the Crime: #1

Scene of the Crime: #1

Mickey Alman. Ivy Books, $3.5 (122pp) ISBN 978-0-8041-0600-9

When the high school's most hated teacher is poisoned, mystery buffs Dan and Alexandra undertake their own investigation. Although their reasoning is unclear, the teen sleuths are certain that the most obvious suspect--a student who completed an honors project on the effects of arsenic--is innocent. Readers who enjoy unraveling mysteries alongside their favorite fictional detectives will find little to work with here: the suspects are trotted forth, one by one, their motivations examined and then, generally, dismissed; convincing red herrings are conspicuously absent. Characterizations that are neither believable nor memorable leave armchair investigators in the dark. Chatty writing and a blandly wholesome small-town setting call to mind the adventures of Nancy Drew and the brothers Hardy. But there the resemblance ends: the story lines of those well-loved novels seem positively complex when compared with the frail plot of this so-called mystery. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)