Pumpkin Falls Mystery 3 – Really Truly

Heather Vogel Frederick's Really Truly is the third Pumpkin Falls Mystery, a funny summer mystery for 10 year olds that starts with a mermaid tail hanging in Truly's wardrobe.

What happens

Truly Lovejoy did not ask for mermaid lessons. That was her cousin Mackenzie's idea. By the end of the summer Truly has also tangled with pirates, suffered a very public costume disaster and gone caving for long-lost treasure. (She'll tell you what "spelunking" means herself.)

First, though, there's the Gifford family reunion. Thirty-seven Giffords, most of them up from Texas, in matching neon-green T-shirts, parading round a very small New Hampshire town where everybody knows everybody's business. Truly is six feet tall and would really rather not be noticed. Guess who ends up in the middle of the photo?

She has her perfect summer all planned. Swimming outdoors, helping at the family bookshop, a film festival with Calhoun (who may or may not like her back) and a whole week with her parents to herself. You can probably guess how well that goes.

This is a cosy mystery rather than a scary one, and the fun is in Truly's voice. She's a bit grumpy, very honest and funny about her enormous family. Her brother calls her Drooly. One uncle is so beaten by Dad's homemade hot sauce that he comes back to the table wearing Grandma's red lipstick!

Her dad lost his arm in the war in Afghanistan, which is why the family moved across the country to run the bookshop. It's handled warmly and without fuss (the family's homemade hot sauce is named after his black prosthetic arm, the Terminator).

There's a gentle crush in here too. Nothing more than Truly wondering whether Calhoun will ever hold her hand.

This is the third book about Truly and her friends, who call themselves the Pumpkin Falls Private Eyes. Earlier cases get a mention, but enough is explained as it goes that your reader won't feel lost.

What to read next

If they like a mystery with two cousins who don't always see eye to eye, The Feather Chase makes a good next step. Sophie drags her London cousin Jessica on a forest hike in fancy sandals, and they find a locked briefcase lying beside the path.