Plot summary: The story begins with Sophie St. Pierre staring out the window of Mr. Eliot's English class and suddenly screaming loudly because she just saw the face of an old lady in the window of the church. After class Sophie decides to go check out the church that is part of the campus of her all girl school, St. Veronica's, with her two best friends Margaret Wrobel and Rebecca Chen. They have to get past the old security guard who is hard of hearing and reading Cosmopolitan, so Margaret tells him loudly that they are students from St. Veronica's, they'd like to take pictures of the church and shows him the school crest on her red blazer. That does the trick, they just can't use the camera flash. They start snooping around and run into the church deacon, Gordon Winterbottom, with whom they pretend they are admiring a painting. Finally they pick the lock of a room and find a cat Teazle, and the old lady who turns out to be Elizabeth Harriman, who lives next to the church and was looking for Teazle. She invites the girls to visit after school.
When the girls go to visit Ms. Harriman they learn about her father, a famous archaeologist who taught at Colombia for 40 years. She married a young colleague of her father's, Malcolm Chance and they had a daughter, Caroline. Caroline went off to college and began traveling with her father, Elizabeth and Malcolm divorced, Caroline went on to graduate school and married one of her father's proteges, notifying her mother by postcard and Elizabeth cut off contact with her. So Elizabeth has asked the girls for their help finding something for her. She found a birthday card from her father to Caroline on her 14th birthday, which he never got to give her because he died right before. Inside was a message to Caroline telling her that due to their mutual love of mysteries, riddles and puzzles he has created an elaborate puzzle for her to solve and at the end she will find the rare and precious birthday gift he has hidden. Sophie, Margaret, and Rebecca have a 20 year old puzzle to solve that will involve some serious literature references and math equations.
Genre: Mystery
Suggested age range: 9 to 12
Subjects/themes: Friendship, Romance, Puzzles, Literature, Math.
Awards:
- 2010 Edgar Award (nominated)
- Booklist (starred review, January 1, 2009)
- School Library Journal (June 1, 2009)
- Sophie St. Pierre - Has a major crush on her friend Raf, she speaks French, her father is a French chef and she is very emotional, hence the uncontrolled scream in English class.
- Margaret Wrobel - She is one of the smartest in her class, has a slight Polish accent because she came to the U.S. from Poland when she was little and she wants to read through all 70 volumes of the Harvard Classics.
- Rebecca Chen - She is a talented artist, has to babysit her brother and sister because her mother just lost her job and might have to leave St. Veronica's because of the high tuition if her mother doesn't find a job soon.
- Mr. Eliot - Huge Charles Dickens fan, teaches English, throws a Dickens banquet every year and this year Sophie, Margaret, Rebecca and Leigh Ann are performing a skit. He helps the girls solve some of the riddles thanks to his knowledge of literature.
- Leigh Ann Jaimes - She is new to St. Veronica's, is friends with the girls but Sophie doesn't know if she likes her because she is pretty and she might like Raf.
- Malcolm Chance - Ex-husband of Elizabeth and interested in the puzzle the girls are trying to solve, but we don't know if he can be trusted.
- Rafael "Raf" Arocho - Does he like Leigh Ann or Sophie? He is friends with the girls and helps them with the puzzle.
- Gordon Winterbottom - Church Deacon, smells of cigarettes, knows a lot about the church like what items are valuable.
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