BEHIND THE CURTAIN: An Echo Falls Mystery
by Peter Abrahams
Laura Geringer Books/HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060737069
ISBN-13: 9780060737061
Ages 10-up
400 pages

• Read an Excerpt

Ingrid Levin-Hill is back. And if you thought she had troubles in DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE, just you wait! Ingrid is the very precocious, very active 13-year-old amateur detective who lives in Echo Falls. Her role model is Sherlock Holmes, and she applies his cunning logic to her cases (although the results are not always the same).

The first problem Ingrid uncovers is when she accidentally sees her father surfing the Internet for jobs. He never said anything about looking for a new job! Has something bad happened at work? And then, while helping her brother Ty do his weightlifting, she notices his muscles building up and he seems to be getting stronger. At the same time, she discovers a little brown bottle that looks like it came from Mexico. The only word she can read is something like "steroids." Steroids! Oh, no. Ty can't be taking steroids --- they're illegal! She can't report him because then her own brother would be going to jail. Is Ty really on steroids? Where is he getting them? And how can Ingrid break up an international steroid ring --- if there really is one?

Next, there's her grandfather. Someone is trying to evict him from his family farm, which has now turned into precious property within the city limits. Who is behind this, and how can Ingrid save the farm?

Meanwhile, a new assistant soccer coach appears at practice. She's cool and calculating, blonde and beautiful, and by the very strangest of circumstances just happens to be the new woman who has been hired to work in Ingrid's dad's office! Coincidence? Sherlock and Ingrid think otherwise.

And, oh yes, there's the little matter of someone kidnapping Ingrid. Who would do such a thing, and for heaven's sake, why? What's worse is that almost no one believes she was really kidnapped. Somehow, by hook and by crook, Ingrid gets this all sorted out.

Can you imagine what's going to happen when Ingrid is 14?

   --- Reviewed by Robert M. Oksner (oksnerinc@attglobal.net)

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