Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Dead Man in the Garden
In this third Aggie Morton mystery, twelve-year-old Aggie (the young Agatha Christie) travels to the Wellspring Hotel and Spa with her mother, grandmother, and young Belgian friend Hector Perot. They are surprised (and excited!) to learn that a woman and former patient at the spa died mysteriously on a park bench a few days prior to their arrival. That evening, a guest, Mr. Hart, receives a telephone call telling him that his niece has suffered an emergency. She had gone with her husband to the bandstand to listen to music and dance. Mr. Hart rushes from the hotel to find her. When the niece returns, having suffered no emergency, Hector and Aggie leave the spa to find Mr. Hart. They discover him on a park bench, dead. The two young detectives assume the deaths are connected murders. With the help of their new friend, George, a wheelchair-bound teenager, and a clever female undertaker, Aggie and Hector collect clues to solve the mysteries.
At first, I thought the criminal was obvious, but as Aggie and Hector uncover details and learn more about the myriad suspects, the trail to the murderer became tangled. This is a cleverly written mystery, and the way the young detectives discuss the clues and their suspicions is a perfect model of problem-solving techniques. Having not read the first two books in the series, I was easily able to understand the character relationships and follow the story. A fun read for mystery lovers of all ages!
