Young & Yang Mysteries, Book 2 - The Tiara on the Terrace

Sophie Young and Grace Yang are back in this second mystery by Kristen Kittscher. Admittedly, this second entry in the series is not quite as entertaining as the first.  The mystery is good enough, but Kittscher seems a bit uncertain with the story as to whether she wants a dead-on mystery or whether she wants a cross between Sweet Valley High and the Dana Girls. The story wavers too much between the girls fighting about Sophie's desire to spy and Grace's desire to "fit in" and be a part of the Winter Sun Festival's royal court of princesses, and the actual mystery itself.  This, in turn, leads to a lot of pages that feel like too much padding to the story.  By the end of 388 pages, I was left wondering if perhaps the story could have actually been told in closer to 288 pages.

Nevertheless, the mystery itself was pretty good, and the ending had a great payoff.  The Tiara on the Terrace, finds Young and Yang still riding on their success of revealing the Tilmore Eight fugitive from the last mystery, Sophie is none-too-thrilled to be helping her friend Grace with the preparations for the upcoming Winter Sun Festival, but when the dead body of the Festival's president turns up inside one of the floats, Agents Young and Yang (along with their trusty sidekick, Trista Bottoms) are on the case!  The police suspect there may have been foul play involved and that the investigation could take weeks - - but the girls are shocked the next day when the new Festival president announces that the police have wrapped up their case and have ruled it an accidental death, and that, as such, the Festival will go on as scheduled!

Sophie, Grace, and Trista know something is very amiss, and when the new president falls face down in his soup at a reception dinner, the girls suspect someone is out for revenge!  Is it the enraged mother, whose daughter was not named queen of the festival?  Or is it the former official who was demoted to "pooper-scooper" duty for the parade?  Or could it be the Festival's treasurer, who sent a very suspicious e-mail that could indicate he is mishandling the Festival's funds?  With too many suspects and not enough clues, Grace convinces Sophie and Trista to do something they would never dream of doing - going undercover as pages in the Royal Court of the Winter Sun Festival.  This means they will have to wait hand and foot on the Queen and her Princesses during the three days leading up to the big parade - but, it also provides them unlimited and unrestricted access to the huge mansion that serves as the Festival's headquarters.

The investigation serves up a lot of potential motives and opportunities - - and when the girls are locked inside of a refrigeration unit used for storing the Festival's flowers (and poor Trista is majorly allergic!), they realize that someone not only knows they are investigating, but also knows they may be getting close to uncovering the truth.  But when Trista stumbles onto a clue that could reveal the killer's identity, she finds herself locked on a runaway float, and Sophie and Grace must break away from the page duties in the middle of the parade and chase the runaway float before it goes careening off the side of the cliff, taking Trista with it!

Kittscher provides some interesting twists and turns with the big reveal at the end, leading readers to wholly suspect one person, and then turning everything on its head in the last few chapters.  I will admit there was one underlying clue throughout the entire book that seemed glaring, but even I had a difficult time connecting it to the murders until close to the end.   And perhaps the intended audience for this series might enjoy all of the girl-centric sub-plots (the fighting over spy-business vs. girl-business, the fight over Sophie revealing one of Grace's most embarrassing moments, etc), but for me, those elements felt unnecessary to the story and merely thrown in to pad the book and remind readers that these two young sleuths were girls with "typical" girl problems.

With only two books, it appears this series may be at an end already, as there is no third book listed on Amazon.com or on the publisher's website.  Perhaps, after all, I wasn't the only one who felt this second book did not hold up quite as well as the first...

RATING:  6 inspirational posters of seals out of 10 for reminding readers that  beauty goes far beyond skin deep and for providing a surprise twist with the identity of the killer!

Young & Yang Mysteries, Book 1 - The Wig in the Window

I suppose I have been very fortunate when picking out new series books to try.  It seems lately, most of the new series I've plucked off the shelves have been rather enjoyable (with only a few exceptions).  The Wig in the Window is definitely one I enjoyed.

This is Kristen Kittscher's first book, and it's clear that she knows children (I guess the fact that she was a middle-school teacher might have helped on that end).  The two main characters, Sophie Young and Grace Yang, are very typical middle-schoolers, with all the problems that children of that age face - homework, parents, bullies, tattle-tales, and adults that put little stock in the stories they tell.  So, it should come as no surprise that when Sophie and Grace are witness to a very unusual scene at the home of one of their school counselors, no one believes them.  It then falls on the two girls - Young and Yang - to uncover the truth behind Dr. Agford's strange behavior and reveal the secrets that she is hiding from the school and all those around her.

The story is told in first-person point-of-view, from the perspective of Sophie Young.  She is insecure, she has her own idiosyncrasies (such as her penchant for all things feng shui), and she has her ups and downs with her best friend, Grace.  While she enjoys their little spy missions, she gradually realizes that while Grace plans out all the missions, it seems Sophie is the one taking all the risks - particularly when they witness what appears to be a murder, and Dr. Agford is the killer!  However, when Sophie calls 9-1-1, she finds that everything is not always what it seems.

The police only find a kitchen covered in beet stains (where Dr. Agford makes her annual batch of beet juice to hand out to everyone).

Dr. Agford becomes overly concerned for Sophie's well-being and insists on having daily sessions in the counselor's office at school.

Her parents ground her and forbid her from hanging out with Grace.

Sophie finds herself a social outcast at school, forced to sit with the only other outcast, Trista Bottoms.

Even worse, Sophie finds herself the target of the girls of S.M.I.L.E., Dr. Agford's little groupies who will do anything and everything to please the counselor.

But none of that stops Sophie.  She and Grace know there is something strange going on, and Dr. Agford's growing nervousness and actions to silence the two girls only proves that they are on to something.  Sneaking out in the middle of the night, breaking into Dr. Agford's house to look for evidence, and even teaming up with Trista to find clues, lead the girls to not only working hand-in-hand with a rather unusual F.B.I. agent (or so she claims), but to discover some rather startling secrets about Dr. Agford that they never expected.

Truly, with this book, the reader beware - nothing is ever as it truly seems!

Kittscher provides a very satisfying conclusion to the mystery, taking the reader on a roller-coaster ride that is Sophie's life.  Believable characters, plenty of action and sneaking around, and twists-and-turns that will keep the reader guessing right along with Sophie.  And, once again, at 346 pages, Harper Collins (publisher) and Kittscher prove that a full-length, fleshed-out novel can make for good reading and be successful (at least, enough to warrant a second book - The Tiara on the Terrace), thus defeating Simon & Schuster's unsubstantiated belief that the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books cannot be more than 120 - 140 pages, since "children don't have the attention span to read books longer than that."  Pffft.  There are too many books, such as this, that would prove otherwise.

RATING:  10 flying wigs out of 10 for mystery, excitement, and danger, as well as homework, detention and counseling!