Review: Much better than the last one
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 23, 2014
Yes, Virginia, you can read these books in two hours.  That said, this book is significantly better than the last one.There will probably be spoilers, so stop reading now if you don't want to know what's the what.The mystery is fairly good--even though I could tell who the bad girl really was about half way through (and I'm no Sherlock.  Or Watson, for that matter.)Mary is more like she was in the first two books--feisty, independent, and more like an ex-cop from Chicago would be.  Bradley was better.  Ian and Mike were great, as always.  Clarissa and Maggie were very realistic.  No matter what problems I have with the way Ms. Reid handles the adults in her books (high school romance, anyone?) she does a great job writing the kids' characters.The downside:  The ongoing smoochies between Mary and Bradley are so cloying and reminiscent of high school, it was sickening.  I've learned to just skip ahead, because it's less traumatic.  (And people say I'm not a romantic.)And this is still a series in search of a decent proofreader.  There is no such word as "acquisitioned."  "Requisitioned," yes.  "Acquired," yes.  "Acquisitioned," NO.  (Actually, non-existent words have cropped up in every book.  I'm starting to wonder if it's deliberate...nah, probably not.)  Also the grammar sometimes gets interesting, but I was born with a red pencil in my mind.  Still, even these books aren't nearly as riddled with errors as some of them.I really, really liked that they didn't wrap up the big threat hanging over Mary, Bradley, and Clarissa.  That actually raises the rating by half a star, to 3.5.  I find myself not cringing at the thought of reading the next book!