cover image The Italian Spaghetti Mystery

The Italian Spaghetti Mystery

George E. Stanley. Avon Books, $2.5 (102pp) ISBN 978-0-380-75166-2

If Daniel Pinkwater rewrote The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the result might very well resemble this work. The story, a sequel to The Ukrainian Egg Mystery, finds the headmistress and students of Miss Westminster's Fine School for Girls headed for Broadway, via the Catskills and possibly Nome, Alaska (since all the big shows open out of town first). But on the way, Miss Westminster and her girls get involved with evildoers who want to monopolize the spaghetti business. (""They'll never take me alive!'' one girl keeps screaming.) None of this is supposed to be taken seriously; ``wacky'' is the operative word here. The humor is strained and the focus is almost always on Miss Westminster. The students themselves are cardboard cut-outssilly, brainless girls in a silly, brainless book. (8-12)