Under Suspicion: A Friday Barnes Mystery (Friday Barnes Mystery, 2, Band 2) - Softcover

Spratt, R. A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250141990 ISBN 13: 9781250141996

Verlag: Square Fish, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

"A must-have series for middle-grade readers." -Booklist

Friday Barnes, girl detective, is... under arrest?!

Getting arrested was the last thing Friday expected after solving the swamp-yeti mystery at her boarding school. But she better clear her name fast! She's got new cases to investigate, like a scandalous quiche bake-off, a decades old mystery buried in her school's backyard, and why the new boy, Christopher, is being so nice to her.

More adventures and intrigue ensue in Under Suspicion: A Friday Barnes Mystery, the second book in the illustrated Friday Barnes mystery series, starring a genius detective with the brains (and social skills) of Sherlock Holmes.

Don't miss any of the Friday Barnes books! Start the adventure all over again with Girl Detective: A Friday Barnes Mystery or continue on with Book Three, No Rules: A Friday Barnes Mystery by R. A. Spratt and illustrated by Phil Gosier.

Praise for Under Suspicion: A Friday Barnes Mystery:

"Spratt continues to hit just the right mix of dry humor and suspense. Her characterization of her protagonist shines . . . Readers know that, like Sherlock Holmes, Friday will solve every mystery; the book's fun is in seeing how she does it . . . A cliffhanger ending will have readers drumming their fingers as they wait for the next episode." -Kirkus Reviews

"[For] readers who like humor but also want more intelligent characters and jokes, as well as those who like quirky mysteries." -Booklist

"This second book in the Friday Barnes series is even funnier and quirkier than its predecessor." -School Library Journal

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

R. A. Spratt; illustrated by Phil Gosier

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Under Suspicion

A Friday Barnes Mystery

By R. A. Spratt, Phil Gosier

Roaring Brook Press

Copyright © 2014 R. A. Spratt
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-250-14199-6

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Notice, 
Dedication, 
Chapter 1: Wrongly Accused, 
Chapter 2: The Vagrant, 
Chapter 3: Deadly Beans, 
Chapter 4: The Real Culprit, 
Chapter 5: The Prodigal Detective Returns, 
Chapter 6: More Trouble, 
Chapter 7: The Deadly Pinecone, 
Chapter 8: Mrs. Cannon, 
Chapter 9: The Case of the Lying Roommate, 
Chapter 10: The Headmaster's Ankle, 
Chapter 11: The Mystery of the Perfect Quiche, 
Chapter 12: The Quiche-Off, 
Chapter 13: A Secret in the Woods, 
Chapter 14: The Familiar Vagrant, 
Chapter 15: Mrs. Cannon's Assignment, 
Chapter 16: At the Library, 
Chapter 17: Kidnapped?, 
Chapter 18: The Open Window, 
Chapter 19: The Art of Disorienteering, 
Chapter 20: Proof, 
Chapter 21: DNA Results, 
Chapter 22: The Confrontation, 
Chapter 23: The Diversion, 
Chapter 24: All Is Revealed, 
Chapter 25: Denouement, 
Questions for Authors, 
Big Trouble Teaser, 
About the Author and Illustrator, 
Copyright, 

CHAPTER 1

Wrongly Accused

Friday Barnes and her roommate, Melanie Pelly, were sitting in the dining hall at Highcrest Academy, enjoying second helpings of chocolate cake. For two people who had absolutely nothing in common, except their mutual dislike of all sports, Friday and Melanie could not be better friends. They were more than just BFFs; they had formed a symbiotic relationship. Melanie was very vague, so she relied on Friday for basic information like what day of the week it was, what class they were sitting in, and how to do quadratic equations. Whereas Friday was socially clueless, so she relied on Melanie for intuitive knowledge, like telling her when she was being so irritating that her teacher was about to have a brain aneurysm.

Friday had never expected to attend a fancy private boarding school. That was until she received a $50,000 reward for helping her uncle solve a bank robbery. Coming from a highly academic family (both her parents and all four of her siblings had PhDs in physics), Friday decided to invest the money in her education, which was how she came to be at Highcrest.

Since arriving at the elite preparatory school, Friday had gone from being a scruffy eleven-year-old social outcast to being a brilliant eleven-year-old private detective. She'd had to because Friday didn't come from a wealthy family like the other students, so working as a private detective was her way of earning an allowance. Friday was still scruffy and socially outcast, but people were prepared to overlook that when they desperately needed her help.

And Friday didn't just help her fellow students. Even the Headmaster called on Friday when he had a problem he couldn't, or didn't want to, handle himself.

On this particular occasion, Friday and Melanie were at the end of a long week of searching for a swamp yeti, capturing bird smugglers, and saving the school's reputation, so Mrs. Marigold, the cook, felt they had earned an extra serving of dessert. But their calorie-induced bliss was about to be interrupted.

"Barnes," snapped a voice from behind them.

Friday and Melanie turned around. The Headmaster was standing next to a uniformed police sergeant.

"What's this?" asked Friday. "Am I getting some sort of citizenship award for everything I've done for the school?"

"No," said the Headmaster soberly. "I'm afraid not."

"Friday Barnes," said the police sergeant, "I have to ask you to come with me."

"Why?" asked Friday.

"Because I'm arresting you," said the police sergeant. "You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so, but whatever you say or do may be used in evidence. Do you understand?"

"Not really," said Friday. "Not the situation anyway. But I do have a large vocabulary and as such have no trouble understanding the meaning of your words."

The police sergeant had dealt with people much more intimidating than Friday resisting arrest, so he simply took the matter in hand. He pulled Friday's chair back for her while she was still sitting on it, took her by the elbow, and guided her to her feet.

Friday was mortified. She didn't have to look up to know that everyone in the room was staring at her. This would be yet another reason for all her rich classmates to snigger and laugh at her. There was nothing she could do. She was the most exciting spectacle in the dining room since Mrs. Marigold lost her temper with a vegetarian student-teacher and dumped a pudding on his head.

"If you'll come with me," said the police sergeant, although Friday could barely hear him through the rushing sound in her ears. People always marvel that holding a seashell to your ear replicates the sound of the sea, but in the seconds before you faint the movement of blood rushing out of your brain replicates the sound of the sea, too.

Friday saw Melanie's concerned expression, and then something made her look across the room. Ian Wainscott, the most handsome boy in school (also the most infuriatingly smug boy in school), was entering through the back door. He was Friday's nemesis/love-interest, no one was entirely sure which. In the past, she'd put his father in prison for a case of insurance fraud involving a stolen diamond, and Ian had dressed up as a swamp yeti and tried to scare her to death. Yet they seemed to be magnetically drawn to each other, if for no other reason than to bicker.

Friday watched Ian's face as he took in the scene. He seemed surprised for a moment; then he caught Friday's eye, and his face returned to its normal apathetic mask.

The police sergeant started pulling at Friday's arm and the world seemed to return to normal speed. Her ears started to process sound again, just in time to hear the first murmurs of malicious gossip.

It was at times like this when Friday wished she didn't have a brain like a supercomputer. Having a photographic memory meant that the words, and the associated hurt, would be accessible in the long-term storage of her brain's neural matrix forever.

"Typical scholarship kid, probably been stealing," whispered Mirabella Peterson.

"Maybe she's being arrested for wearing those brown cardigans," said Trea Babcock. "She should get five to ten years for crimes against fashion."

"Plus another ten for the green hat," said Judith Wilton.

Now dozens of people sniggered. That was the last Friday heard as the dining room door flapped closed behind her.

A squad car with lights flashing was parked at the top of the school's driveway.

"The Headmaster is going to hate that," said Friday. "It's a bad look for the school."

"The Headmaster will be grateful I'm taking you off his hands after what y — Wagh!" said the police sergeant, who was interrupted midlecture because he had fallen into a hole about one foot round and one foot deep. "Ow, that hurt," he said, rubbing his knees.

"I wonder who put that there?" said Friday. She inspected the hole. It looked like it had been dug out by hand.

"This crazy school," muttered the police sergeant. "There's always something going on. Rich kids with their weird pranks or bitter teachers with their revenge plots. The sooner we get out of here, the better."

Friday looked back at the main building. She had a lump in her throat and her eyes started to itch. She knew she wasn't...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Square Fish
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1250141990
• ISBN 13: 9781250141996
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Square Fish; https://us.macmillan.com/publishers/square-fish-books/; ; 120 Broadway; New York; NY; 10271; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland