Fans of Beil's Red Blazer Girls or Runholdt's Lucas and Kari mysteries will find this "cozy" mystery series for middle grade readers vastly amusing. Not only is there actual murder (something for which many readers ask and few authors write), but there is girl drama, sleepovers and a bit of romance. Sophie, Grace and Trista find themselves sharing close quarters with the popular girls who usually give them a hard time, but come to find that most people are easier to deal with once you know them.

The details of a small town festival are lots of fun, and anyone who has ever worked on a parade float will appreciate all of the work that goes into the preparations for one. It seemed a bit unlikely that the pages and the court would have been moved into a mansion for the week, but since middle grade heroes need a parent-free environment in order to save the day, this was a vastly better alternative than killing their parents.

These books remind me vaguely of Lillian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who books, and are a perfect choice for the younger reader whose parents' shelves are filled with that series, Diana Mott Davidson's cooking mysteries or the works of Susan Wittig Albert.