Sorry for the weirdly cropped picture... I couldn't find any really good ones.
Thoughts before reading:
I've never read this before, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it. Only seven mysteries in, I am already very tired of them.
The basics:
Jessi's headed to NYC for the weekend to see Quint and his production at Julliard. (She'll be staying with Stacey and her dad.) Her parents are going to a wedding out of town that same weekend, and Becca's staying with the Pikes. She's very upset to be the only one staying behind, and feels like her family is abandoning her. (Kids aren't allowed at the wedding. Squirt's going with their parents, but then staying with a sitter during the event.)
First off after arriving in the city and settling in, Jessi heads to Quint's apartment and has dinner with his family. She's really nervous, but everything goes just fine. Afterwards, her and Quint hang out together and watch a movie. Jessi wants to have a Talk with him about if they can see other people, since they are only eleven and long distance. He's nervous about his upcoming performance though, so she decides to wait.
After the movie, Jessi's getting a kick out of looking into the nearby apartments. She's amazed by how close together they are, so you can look right into people's lives. (This does not mean you should spy on people, Jessi...) While she's doing this, her and Quint overhear two men fighting loudly about some kind of jewel heist. When Quint's dad asks them to turn it down, thinking the noise is coming from the tv, the men close their window and leave. Quint and Jessi are stunned that they've just overheard a crime being planned, but unsure what to do about it. They're also scared that the men might know their names now, from his dad calling.
All that night, Jessi worries about the men coming after her. The next day, she returns to Quint's apartment. They listen to the men through the window again, then follow them out of the building, around Central Park, and to the Met. After that they lose the trail, but Jessi does notice that the Met is advertising an upcoming exhibit of Russian jewels. She realizes this must be the heist that's being planned.
Jessi and Quint meet up with Stacey and her dad for lunch, then Quint has to leave for his dress rehearsal. Stacey and Jessi return to his apartment to babysit for his siblings, but Jessi's really distracted during the job. Stacey notices and asks her about it, and Jessi admits to what's been going on.
During Quint's performance that evening, Jessi gets really nervous because she thinks she sees one of the men, who they've been calling Red. It's confirmed during the break, when she sees both men together outside. One of them even looks right at her.
Sunday Jessi and Quint start following the men around again, this time into a jewelry store. The kids are promptly kicked out though, ending their trail. Later on they overhear the pair arguing again, but it's the exact same argument, word for word, as the one from Friday. Then both men botch some lines and start talking about a script. Jessi and Quint realize they were actors all along.
Before leaving, Jessi has her big Talk with Quint. He feels the same way. They agree to be friends, and he invites her to his next show.
Back in Stoneybrook, Becca spends her weekend giving Mal a hard time, crying and moping about being abandoned. She decides to run away and camp out at home while Mary Anne and Mal are babysitting for her and the other Pike kids. Mary Anne helps her by going along with it, until Becca realizes it's a bad idea on her own (she gets too scared). After Claudia brings over art supplies for the kids to make dragons, Becca ends up having fun and not wanting to leave.
Timeline:
It's still springtime.
Misc. thoughts:
*Stacey looking out for Jessi in here was really sweet.
*There was a passage in here about re-reading books that I really liked: "There's something wonderful about re-reading a favorite book. It's just so comforting to follow the familiar words and to watch the plot unfold in the way you know it will. Before long I was swept up in the story, and my worries dropped away." Very true, and kind of fitting for my whole BSC project too.
*As usual, the Pike parents get multiple babysitters in a single weekend...
*The handwriting before Claudia's babysitting chapter isn't hers, and everything is spelled correctly. I think it was actually Mary Anne's? Was anyone editing the books by this point?
*I figured out this "mystery" from the very start...it's a very BSC-verse twist. That being said, I preferred this to some kids helping stop real criminals planning a real jewel heist. Silly as this story was, that would have been vastly worse. At least this is a misadventure real kids could get into. It actually makes sense that some nosy kids would misunderstand something and make a big deal out of it.
*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles
*Nice to have Jessi and Stacey paired up and doing some bonding. I like when there's an uncommon pair of BSC members spending time together.
Books mentioned:
*Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry
*The Eloise series, by Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight
My rating:
3 stars. A bit on the dull side, but I marked it up for being one of the more realistic mysteries...especially when compared to the last one, where the girls were catching criminals and outsmarting the police force. Yikes.
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