In this third volume of the Mauzzy & Me Mystery Series, B.T. Polcari’s feisty heroine Sara Donovan and her pet pooch find themselves seemingly caught up in a bizarre blackmail plot—with a twist. Sara receives a mysterious package containing a series of compromising photographs, along with an invitation to a mystery mansion where a competition is set to take place. She arrives to find eight other contestants, each compelled to attend in order to keep their own secrets hidden from the eyes of law enforcement. The prize? An extraordinary fortune for the winner.
As the contenders struggle to solve a series of riddles that could lead them to the treasure, Sara begins to worry that the competition may prove deadlier than she anticipated.
LUCKY SECRETS is a breezy, if fairly simple, young adult novel that blends elements of classic choose-your-own-adventure stories with escape rooms and traditional mystery drama. Now a well-established character, Sara holds her own among a colorful cast of minor players, all eager to claim the prize (and protect their reputations). Her dialogue is sprightly and fun, even in the face of danger. Her dog Mauzzy is an amiable, if not exactly dynamic, sidekick.
The set-up is clever, allowing the author to plant hints throughout the story—not just within the riddles the characters must crack. As the group uncovers clues leading to safe codes and deeper layers of the mystery, they navigate the mansion’s many rooms. However, the writing lacks rich description, making the mansion feel more generic than it could have been with greater attention to detail. In more sophisticated hands, the location might have become a character in its own right. As it stands, it’s initially described as resembling “a fancy Spanish villa. Or extravagant castle.” Other than detailing what is in each room, Polcari never really goes much further in the scene setting.
The riddles themselves sometimes feel a bit too obvious. That said, conveying a character’s internal logic while solving puzzles is no easy task. Given the premise evokes several television whodunnits, some scenes might have played out more effectively in a visual medium. On the page, moments involving numerical puzzles occasionally become overwrought. A two-page sequence attempts to dramatize unlocking the code to a safe, culminating in stretches of rather leaden, explanatory dialogue such as this: “So, what if the other two, eighteen and thirty-eight, what if I was close but got one slightly wrong because the numbers were kinda wiggly on the screen? And since they were the last two, I hadn’t fully focused on them before everything disappeared. Maybe one of those eights I thought I saw was really a three, or a nine.”
New readers may wish for more texture and scene-setting in Polcari’s prose, but they’ll likely find themselves quickly drawn into the intrigue.
LUCKY SECRETS is a fast-moving story that will amuse readers who enjoy puzzles and mysteries. B.T. Polcari’s lively heroine Sara Donovan continues her journey toward becoming a full-fledged sleuth, and returning fans of the series won’t be disappointed.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader