This is very much like Trixie Belden meets THE WESTING GAME. I should also tell you up front that this book is full of math and I HATE math and I enjoyed this book tremendously. I even read the math parts. In fact, it could have been mathier (tm Joss Whedon) and I don’t think I would have minded.

Our story begins when Sophie looks out the window of her Upper East Side private school English class and sees “a woman’s face, really pale, almost white, with long white hair” in an upper window of the church opposite. When she and her two best female friends sneak into the church later, they meet a bizarre old woman who enlists their help in tracking down a birthday gift her father left for her daughter many years ago. The first problem: the gift is at the end of a long and complicated scavenger hunt, and when they begin, they have no idea what the gift is.

They quickly figure out that the gift is actually a priceless ancient ring, rumored to grant wishes to the bearer. The second problem: they’re not the only ones to figure this out. The girls must use cunning, luck, and an awful lot of math to figure out the puzzles that will lead them to the next clue in the scavenger hunt and enable them to find the ring before anyone else does.

The third problem: Sophie’s developed a thing for her closest male friend. Does he like her too? Can they trust him to help in the quest? And will all of this romantic nonsense just get in the way of solving the mystery?

I look forward to many more adventures with THE RED BLAZER GIRLS.