The Impossible Clue

Everyone in school knows that 12-year-old Alice Jones is the go-to girl for figuring things out, so it isn’t a surprise when classmate Sammy asks her to help with a missing-person case. His father runs a science laboratory, Delgado Industries, and the top scientist, who was working on a project involving invisibility, has disappeared. Alice is goaded into taking the case when Sammy’s father decides that she will be a good decoy for the press while the “real” detectives search, but as he and others soon learn, underestimating Alice isn’t a good idea. Alice evades the goons following her and uses logic to weigh the clues she uncovers as Rubin’s (Someday Dancer) mystery winds toward a gratifying conclusion. Though Alice can be prickly, her family, including her journalist father and twin sister, Della, is her soft spot, and Alice’s emotional growth as is as satisfying as the mystery she unravels. Observant and persistent, Alice is an easy character to cheer on, and the ethical quandaries that arise lend added depth to her story. Ages 8–12. Agent: Lindsey Fraser, Fraser Ross. (Jan.)