Sammy visits an art gallery exhibition opening hoping to do an artist interview for her art class but a burglary interrupts the event and Sammy finds herself caught up in the mystery of whodunnit, what kind of people the artists Diane and Tess are, and what's so compelling about Diane's painting "Whispers."

Seventh-grade sleuth Sammy Keyes investigates mysterious happenings at a local art gallery.

such a fun book i love it i would diffinetly read it again. i often crave reading another but i already read the whol series and im trying to read different books ( )

I've been meaning to pick up one of these books forever (those be some catchy covers), but never really got to it. Sammy Keyes is a rather appealing snazzy-speaking tween protagonist: skateboarding, making box-mac-and-cheese-and-salsa, and of course, being a nosy mystery-uncover-er. It's all in the mold of some noir mystery but modern with relatable struggles for Sammy (incomprehensibleness of teachers, absentee mom, secretly living with grandma to not violate senior-living-only arrangement, first crush) handled deftly. And I always think feminism is a winner.

Really, I enjoyed a visit her stylized (but still believable) and rich world, populated by a cast of colorful supporting characters. And particularly the snappy dialogue. But I think the book suffers a bit from what I'll call 'series-itus'. Status quo is god, and ultimately, I'm not sure a whole lot of actually happens to the characters- not of any lasting importance anyway. A bigger problem is probably that the central mystery is a dud, although it allows some nice contemplation of the subjectivity of art.

Will I read another Sammy Keyes mystery? Probably not, but it wasn't a bad way to spend a hour. ( )