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Small-town sleuth meets Shakespeare in 'Absolutely Truly'

Heather Vogel Frederick, author of the 'Mother-Daughter Book Club' books, returns to New England to create a cozy setting for her new series. 

Absolutely Truly: A Pumpkin Falls Mystery By Heather Vogel Frederick Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers 368 pp.
  • By Monitor staff

What happens when a 6-foot-tall 12-year-old named Truly Lovejoy must leave her dream home in Austin, Texas, and settle in the frozen village of “population you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire”? She finds a mystery to solve, of course.

Fans of Heather Vogel Frederick’s “Mother-Daughter Book Club” series will be pleased to discover that Frederick launched a brand-new series last month. And like the “Mother-Daughter Book Club,” Absolutely Truly, the first book of the “Pumpkin Falls Mystery” series is charming, slyly humorous, steeped in New England ambiance, and aimed squarely at book lovers.

It’s no accident that Frederick, a former Monitor children’s books editor, sets her story’s action in a bookstore. Truly discovers a clue in a first edition of “Charlotte’s Web” and must brush up on her Shakespeare to stay on the trail.

Calling all book lovers – this one looks like a gentle winner.

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