BoTW: The Red Blazer Girls

The Red Blazer Girls by Michael D. Beil is a throwback to the young adult mystery books from a few decades ago. It centers around the investigative antics of three teenage girls, all of the them the best of friends. The girls attend a private Catholic high school for girls. They wear red blazers as part of their school uniform, hence their namesake. Sophie narrates the story and is the glue that holds the friends together. Margaret is the brains of the trio, an intellectual powerhouse who deduces with the best of them. Rebecca is the artist and the group's comic relief.

The three have the most active of imaginations, Sophie especially. The story begins when Sophie screams out loud in class when she sees a face peering out the window of the church across from her school. Undaunted by the scare, the three quickly agree to investigate the face and sneak into the church. Instead of a ghost or murderer, the girls discover an old lady and a decades-old mystery. The mysterious old lady tasks them with solving the whereabouts of a ring that according to legend grants wishes.

The Red Blazer Girls enthusiastically take the case and proceed to sneak into a church, hide under an alter table, and use Decartes' Cartesian coordinate system to track down the ring, among other detective activities. The girls employ a healthy dose of basic algebra and geometry to solve their case and Beil unfolds the puzzles in such a way that the reader can attempt to solve the equations right alongside the young sleuths.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Red Blazer Girls. As a kid, I read every The Hardy Boys mystery I could get my hands on. Beil's Red Blazer Girls are very much in the light-hearted, investigative spirit of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. If you enjoy a good mystery and solving math problems, pick up The Red Blazer Girls today!