The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour by Michael Beil

This book was suggested by one of my students and our school librarian, and I gave it a rating of four out of five. Sophie, Margaret, and Rebecca are in school one day when Sophie notices a mysterious face looking at her from the building next door. It turns out the face belongs to an older woman with a mystery. Her father left her daughter scavenger-hunt clues to find a birthday gift, but he died before giving them to her. And that was about fifteen years ago. The husband was an archaeologist, and he said the gift would be a "treasure". The three girls follow the clues leading to the treasure, but they discover someone else is looking for it too. The treasure could be worth millions! The mysterious rival could be the ex-husband, the snoopy housekeeper, or someone else the kids don't suspect. To complicate things, a cute boy is involved which creates some conflict and distraction.

This book won't appeal to everyone. I found the clues interesting, because they seemed almost impossible to solve. I liked how the author made each clue related to a different school subject area. The setting was mostly in a school and the church next door, so that tended to decrease the suspense a bit. There were a couple of places where the author described the solution to the clues, almost like lessons in school. The climax was creative, and I liked how the author happily resolved all of the problems.