Big Trouble: A Friday Barnes Mystery, third in the series of R. A. Spratt novels, follows the path of its predecessors in pre-teen detective work, with snappy dialogue between the hyper-quantitative title character and her idiosyncratic-orthogonal roommate-best-friend Melanie. The girls each view the world from their unique perspectives. Result: delightful humor!

An example, from Chapter 12 ("A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words"), as Friday and Melanie examine a gossip magazine photo of two of their fellow boarding-school students apparently embracing, captioned "Secret Smooching at Swanky School":

"The first thing we've got to figure out," said Friday, "is where the photo was taken."
"At the school," said Melanie.
"Yes, obviously," said Friday. "But where at the school? It's hard to work out because the photo is black-and-white and the background is fuzzy."
"Plus you're in love with lan," said Melanie. "So you can't take your eyes off his lips."
"I am not in love with Ian," said Friday.
"Uh-huh," said Melanie. "And yet here you are, staring at a photo of him."
"I'm looking at the background!" said Friday.
"Of course you are," said Melanie. "Maybe you should look at his hair."
"I'm not obsessed with his hair," said Friday.
"No, I mean the angle of it," said Melanie. "It's strange."
"Maybe Ingrid ran her hand through his hair," said Friday. "That is something kissing people are known to do."
"How would you know? asked Melanie.
"We didn't only have physics books in our house growing up," said Friday. "There was a small sociology section, too."
"Still," said Melanie, "his hair seems to be defying gravity."
Friday looked at lan's hair. "You're right."
"I am?" said Melanie. "That's a nice change."
Friday tilted her head. "This photograph is at the wrong angle." She turned the magazine around. "They aren't standing up. They're horizontal."
"Ew," said Melanie, shielding her eyes. "Too much information.
"We need to talk to the victims," said Friday.
"My eyeballs?" asked Melanie.
...

Fast, fun, a bit more picaresque than the prior books in the series — and all good!

_{(cf Friday Barnes, Girl Detective (2023-10-18), Friday Barnes, Under Suspicion (2023-10-23), ...) - ^z - 2023-10-26}