The Case of the July 4th Jinx by Lewis B. Montgomery, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Best friends Milo and Jazz investigate a series of mysterious incidents at the local summer fair in The Case of the July 4th Jinx, the fifth mystery in this early reader chapter series by Lewis B. Montgomery.

"People are saying that the fair is jinxed this year," the teenager manning the bake sale booth tells Milo and Jazz. "Because of all the weird stuff that's been happening." Like contest entries disappearing then reappearing in a box of fireworks, kiddie-farm animals let loose, and an Uncle Sam balloon that keeps losing its air. Milo suspects it may be the work of the "Zoo Crew", a group of middle school students so named "'cause they're so wild." Devising a scheme to infiltrate the group, Milo goes undercover in an attempt to expose them as the culprits.

Milo and Jazz are appealing characters and are easy to relate to. They are detectives in training, taking a "Secrets of a Super Sleuth" correspondence course led by the world-famous private investigator Dash Marlowe. Their current lesson is certainly apt: going undercover. "If you play your role well and get your suspects to trust you, they may let clues slip. And if you play it really well, you may even learn to think like your suspects — and that can help you solve the crime." Good advice, indeed. There's a lot of humor coupled with a fair amount of misdirection here and the identity of the culprit may even come as a surprise to parents, who choose to read the book with their children.

Each book in the series concludes with "Super Sleuthing Strategies", word games and puzzles that are both challenging and entertaining.

Acknowledgment: The Kane Press provided a copy of The Case of the July 4th Jinx for this review.

The Case of the Purple Pool
The Kane Press (Trade Paperback), July 2011
ISBN-13: 9781575653426; ISBN-10: 1575653427

The Case of the July 4th Jinx

The Milo & Jazz Mysteries by Lewis B. Montgomery