From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up-After their father dies, Sam, 17, and Sophie, 15, are forced to leave their home in Queens, NY, and begin a new life on the lam. Afraid that their evil stepmother will separate them and force Sophie to attend a boarding school in Canada, they take their father's funds and make a run for it. With the help of a schoolmate with criminal connections, the sisters establish new identities as Sam and Fiona Scott and take up residence in the small town of Venice, IN. There, they meet many new people, including Noelle McBride, the 16-year-old Rose Queen of Venice and a stuck-up snob. When she disappears after Sam and Sophie drop her off one evening, they become the prime suspects because they were the last people to see her. With the police on their trail, the sisters become amateur sleuths to crack the case and clear their own names. At the same time, they must stay hidden themselves. Narrated by Sophie in a chatty style, this fast-paced book is filled with humor. Teens will identify with the characters. The story is fun and entertaining with the added appeal of a twist of mystery.
Nicole M. Marcuccilli, Glenview Public Library, ILCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Reviewed with M. E. Rabb's
The Chocolate Lover.
Gr. 7-10. The first titles in the new Missing Persons mystery series introduce teen orphans Samantha and Sophie Shattenberg, sisters who flee their Queens, New York, home after their father's death to escape their stepmother, who intends to abscond with the family money and ship Sophie off to boarding school. A few felonies later (fake documentation; funds illegally transferred from their father's account), the girls settle into a new life, and new identities, in tiny Venice, Indiana. In The Rose Queen, the girls become prime suspects in the disappearance of an obnoxious local beauty queen and crack the case to clear their names. That success turns into jobs with the local PI, and in Chocolate Lover, they connect art stolen during the Holocaust with its missing owner while exploring their own family tree. Although Rabb indulges in a few small-town stereotypes, she creates breezy, compelling mysteries that can be read as stand-alone titles. More interesting, though, are the deeper identity struggles of the likable sisters, who cherish their New York Jewish roots even as they try to live (and fall in love) while masquerading as young, midwestern gentiles. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
