Spies and Prejudice

May 13, 2013
Sixteen-year-old Berry Fields has been on stakeouts with her private investigator father since she was nine, and handling cases since she was 14. The one case she can’t crack is the car crash that killed her mother. When Berry happens upon information that suggests the crash may be linked to her best friend’s father, she starts to investigate, aided—or is it obstructed?—by a couple of handsome guys who’ve recently turned up in school. One seems nice, the other haughty, but both turn out to have ties to the case. Vance (Silver) sets the stakes high: Berry isn’t the only budding spy at work, and nearly every major character’s father comes under suspicion. But while she’s good when it comes to romance—it’s fun to watch Berry and Tanner move from dislike to attraction, à la Elizabeth and Darcy in the novel’s quasi-namesake—the plot feels manufactured and improbable. The big reveal, meanwhile, gives short shrift to Berry’s connection to her lost mother, which until then had been the driving force behind the story. Ages 12–up. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary Agency.

June 1, 2013

Gr 7-10-A fun, contemporary mystery thriller with some romance thrown in to spice it up. Strawberry Fields, the daughter of a private investigator, has been working with her father since her mother died years earlier. Her best friend, Mary Chris, is a whiz at technology. The story opens with the two girls on a stakeout at a restaurant where they meet Tanner and Ryan, who are new in town and are going to be attending their high school. When Berry leaves the restaurant, she spies her friend's father handing over files with her mother's name on them to a woman in the parking lot, and she is determined to solve the mystery of her mother's death. Was it suicide, like the police said? An accident? Or murder? In the end, she has to decide who to trust as no one seems to want her to find out the truth about the car accident that took her mom. The premise of this story may seem implausible: teenagers handling top-secret information, using high-tech surveillance equipment, and spying on corporations, but it works here. Vance has written a humorous, fast-paced story in which the teens seem to know more than the adults. Recommend it to those who want a quick read about smart high-school characters who spend more time solving mysteries than algebraic equations.-Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2013
A young woman who assists with her dad's private-investigation business is drawn to a stormy newcomer in this mystery that features glimmers of Austen's revered tale. Headstrong Berry is often charged with spying on the errant husbands of her father's clients, which has left her skeptical about relationships. She and her father have also endured years of grief over her mother's unexpected death, ruled a suicide by the police. So when Berry begins to suspect that her best friend Mary Chris' dad may have been somehow involved, she initiates a clandestine investigation that lands her between two guys new to her school: the seemingly friendly, helpful Drew and the gorgeous but complicated Tanner. It also opens a rift between her and Mary Chris, who is enraptured with Tanner's stepbrother, Ryan. Berry is a likable, tough character whose acerbic wit is tempered by moments of vulnerability layered in her internal dialogue. Many other characters are less well-developed, though romance fans will relish the smoldering between Berry and Tanner. Mary Chris and Berry's friend Jason is often very funny (at one point he's described as making a gesture "between jazz hands and some kind of seizure"), but at times, he feels a little stereotyped in the gay-best-friend role. Fun and tightly plotted, if a bit formulaic. (Mystery. 13 & up)

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July 1, 2013
Grades 7-10 Fans of Veronica Mars will enjoy Vance's espionage-filled romantic romp. Berry Fields spies on cheating husbands for her PI father, using sophisticated gadgets devised by her best friend, Mary Chris. Working for her father is just an excuse, though: Berry's real case is her mother's disappearance. Berry discovers a link between her mother and Mary Chris' father that coincides with the appearance of two mysterious new hotties at school. To cynical Berry, both boys seem too interested in her and Mary Chris to be innocent, though she is drawn to the smoldering Tanner. While the mystery, involving corporate espionage over a deadly drink formula, is implausible, the romance is charged with the right balance of attraction and repulsion. Recommend to fans of Ally Carter's equally frothy Gallagher Girls series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2013
Berry Fields is too busy working for her father as a private investigator to think about love. Then, as she's looking into clues surrounding her mother's death, she meets gorgeous Tanner Halston, who seems to have an interest in her investigations. Should she trust him? This modern Pride and Prejudice adaptation works well as a Veronica Marsesque teen detective story.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)