TANGLED UP IN NONSENSE

Two middle school sleuths search for a 1920s gangster’s missing loot.

Sloane and Amelia haven’t had a good case since they solved the century-old mystery of the Cursed Hoäl Jewels (Tangled Up in Luck, 2021), and they’re losing YouTube subscribers. But they have an amazing opportunity: What if they find the missing fortune of bootlegger Jacqueline “Ma” Yaklin, a legendary Toledo criminal? Sloane’s troublemaking, gambling, scheming grannies (whom she adores) trick Amelia’s hypercompetitive family into attending the Annual Ohio Peony Enthusiasts Competition—at a hotel that was once Ma Yaklin’s mansion. Now the Osburn and Poe Detective Agency has no excuse for not solving the cold case of the missing millions. Harassed by the over-the-top shenanigans of Amelia’s family’s ridiculous braggadocio, pestered by the grannies to (cough) discreetly acquire cuttings of prizewinning peonies, and accompanied everywhere by Amelia’s costume-wearing, joyful dramatics, the girls will surely solve the mystery and find the lost lucre. Sloane helps Amelia feel better about her family’s disrespect, and Amelia comforts Sloane, who’s worried about her dad’s new girlfriend. But even the laughter at their families’ antics is not unkind in this friendship-building yarn. The puzzle itself is solvable by readers, as the foreshadowing omniscient narrator periodically prompts them to notice. Main characters are White.

A warmhearted, very funny, madcap caper.