11-year-old Innie Moretti is thrilled when she finds out from her older cousin, Carmela, about the girls' library club at the new settlement house in Boston's North End. Innie and her cousin, Teresa, volunteer to help unpack the books, clean, and do other tasks to get the house ready for business. Smoke from the recent Chelsea fire left lots of soot to be removed. Innie can't resist the temptation to explore as she works. She thinks she hasn't been observed, but when food and other items keep disappearing from the house, Innie's snooping makes her the prime suspect. With the help of her cousin, Teresa, and their new friend, Matela, Innie conducts her own investigation to find the guilty party.

This is just the type of mystery I loved when I was in elementary school. In books, old houses always seem to hide secrets, and I used to dream about exploring old houses with secret passages and hidden rooms. The mystery and its solution are believable, although older readers will probably guess the solution long before it is revealed. Readers of any age will enjoy the friendship between immigrant girls of different ethnic backgrounds (Italian Catholic and Russian Jewish). Readers familiar with Boston will enjoy reading about places and events in the city's past. ( )

Innie Moretti loves books and has an opportunity to be part of a library club at a new settlement house in Boston's North End. As things begin to disappear around the settlement house, suspicion falls to Innie, her cousin, and a Russian immigrant who recently joined, but Innie gets the lion's share of the blame. She feels that she must find the real thief.

As with most books in this series, this is centered around a historical event. In this case, it is the Chelsea fire of 1908. I personally enjoyed reading the notes at the end regarding the real event more than I enjoyed the mystery itself. The mystery itself will likely appeal to middle school girls.

I love things with a Boston setting and had been looking forward to this mystery set in the North End. I feel that the novel needed a stronger sense of place than it had. Even though the author incorporated locations in the Boston area, she did not make the most of these in the plot. ( )

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