Getting Lincoln's Goat: An Elliot Armbrus

Snappy narration and a waggish sense of humor carry this caper, first in a planned series of Elliot Armbruster mysteries. Beguiled by detective shows on TV, 15-year-old Elliot plans to become a private eye-and when the goat that serves as the high school mascot disappears before a big game, Elliot seizes the opportunity to launch his career. Story lines proliferate at a wild rate and the plot piles up red herrings, but Goldman (Money to Burn) never loses control. Here, characters and events pay comic homage to hardboiled conventions, and narrator Elliot is more wiseacre than tough guy. In a characteristically dry exchange, he signs a classmate's petition to save the ocean from pollution, then asks the girl who she'll deliver the petitions to: ""`God,' she answered without blinking. `We figure that if we get enough signatures, She'll have to take notice.' That sounded more reasonable than handing them over to some oil company.'' Start to finish, this one's lots of fun. Ages 10-up. (Apr.)