Amanda Lester and the Green Monkey Gotcha (Amanda Lester Mysteries No. 7)

It's been two years (almost to the day!) since I read my last Amanda Lester mystery, so I figured it was about time I picked up the next book in the series - which, I realize, is not the most recent, since Amazon shows there are currently 10 books published in the series.  So I am three books behind at this point.  But, that's okay, as it appears there have been no new stories since book 10 was published, so I have some time to catch up.  This series is sort of like a Harry Potter world for detectives - a group of children with detectives in their heritage join together at a secret school where they train to be detectives, all the while fighting off a villainous school that teaches criminals led by none other than a descendant of Moriarty.  And that shouldn't be much a surprise, since the title character is a descendant of Inspector Lestrade.  The series started off rather mysterious (as any good mystery should!), but as it has progressed, I can't deny the fact that the stories and situations have gotten more and more outlandish, and this book - well, this book definitely takes the cake!

Amanda Lester and the Green Monkey Gotcha is the "green book" for this series.  Like the Connie Blair series back in the day, author Paula Berinstein chose to go with a color theme for this series, each book title referencing a mystery related to a different color - pink, orange, purple, blue, red, gold, and now green.  Based on the title, I went into the book believing a green monkey would be the focus of the story (as in the previous books, the object in the title was a huge part of the mystery).  Oddly enough, the "green monkey" played a very small part of this book - perhaps that's what the "gotcha" part of the title means!

In any event, the story opens not with our title character, but with Blixus Moriarty and his now-known-to-be twin brother, Professor Christopher Scribbish ... and then students Simon and Clive ... then back to Blixus in his dungeon cell ... then Scapulus Holmes, sitting in the dungeon cell next to his mortal enemy.  Amanda Lester doesn't actually make her first appearance in this story until the third chapter, as she and her friends try to figure out how to locate the Detective Bible that has been lost.  Simon may know its whereabouts, but he won't reveal how he knows.  So, the kids head off to search for the Bible ... but out of nowhere, Amanda's crazy, fifty-two year old cousin, Despina, is the one who happens to find it in the reeds at Lake Windermere (the very location all of the students were searching for the book!).  This does not make sense story wise, since these are supposed to be some of the world's smartest kids, and yet they don't find the very book they are looking for, which happens to just be lying in the weeds next to the lake?  Feels like a cop-out to me.

Of course, that is only a drop in the bucket for the directions this story takes.  They are able to decipher a portion of the Bible pages (which appear to have been changed when the pages of the book were soaked in the lake), which indicates the importance of a green monkey.  I assumed this would launch into a book-long search for this mysterious green monkey, but no - Amanda and Fern do a few pages of searching here and there, but until the end of the story, there is little said about the green monkey and any importance it may hold for the detectives.  Rather, readers are treated to a constant, revolving story of the way-too-many characters in this series already and get introduced to even more (including a dwarf girl with whom Holmes falls in love!).  Simon and Clive are working on a way to stop Scribbus from mentally communicating with his twin brother ... David and Gordon are trying to prove their own worth as detectives by solving a string of thefts (during which they meet Delara Watson, another new character who is a descendant of - well, I think that's pretty obvious) ... Nick is doing all he can to protect his sister ... Amanda is working to decipher the code in the Detective's Bible ... and then you've got Hugh, Taffeta, Lila, Waltz, Eustace, and so many others ... I don't even know if a daytime soap opera could manage to juggle all of these characters and stories!

Oh, and did I mention that Amanda's dad makes an unexpected return in this book?  And there's the tiny, little part of the story where the Moriarty brothers combine their mental capabilities to control those around them.  Ah, and we mustn't forget the mysterious group of monks who show up at the last minute and literally freeze everyone with a blink of the eye.  Literally!  I'm not kidding!  The series has definitely gone from being grounded in clues and facts to science fiction and fantasy.  And a little bit of supernatural as well (because I haven't even mentioned the ghost yet...).  And, oh, yes, there's also the side-story involving Amanda's decision to use Darius' film studio and begin a new film project with Rhys Cowsill.  If you're confused yet, don't worry - there is so much going on in this book, I feel like we need scorecards to keep track of everything and everyone!

The first few books in this series seemed more focus; however, as the series has progressed, it feels like there are just more and more things thrown into the mix to see just how fantastical the stories can become, and I'm left wondering if Berinstein even knows where she is taking the story and the characters.  And, yes, the "green monkey" did finally come into play at the very end of the story in a very contrived way - very anticlimactic, indeed.

I have not yet purchased books 8, 9, and 10, and I haven't yet decided if I will.  Between the craziness of the stories, the non-stop growing cast of characters, the unnecessarily vulgarities scattered throughout this books - I'm just not sure if I want to continue reading these books.  I suppose we shall see...

RATING:  5 bouquets of midnight slippers out of 10 for at least reuniting all of these detectives for a climactic battle unlike any other in this series!