“A must-have series for middle-grade readers.” ― Booklist Imagine if Sherlock Holmes was an eleven-year-old girl! When Friday Barnes, girl genius, solves a bank robbery, she uses the reward money to send herself to Highcrest Academy, the most exclusive boarding school in the country―and discovers it's a hotbed of crime! Soon she's investigating everything from disappearing homework to the terrifying Yeti haunting the school swamp. But the biggest mystery yet is Ian Wainscott, the handsomest (and most arrogant) boy in school who inexplicably hates her. Will the homework be found? Can they ever track down the Yeti? And why is Ian out to ruin her? Girl Detective is the first book in the hilarious Friday Barnes Mystery series. "With off-the-wall plot turns and small mysteries scattered throughout, this is the perfect choice for mystery fans with a silly sense of humor, and the cliff-hanger ending promises more sleuthing on the horizon. Gosier’s black-and-white spot illustrations add to the charming atmosphere. A sheer delight." ― Booklist , starred review "Spratt’s (the Nanny Piggins series) effortlessly funny narration will keep readers laughing from start to finish."― Publishers Weekly , starred review "Quirky, tongue-in-cheek... delightfully eccentric... A good choice for voracious readers who enjoy a blend of humor and mystery." ― School Library Journal "Spratt begins this new series with a nifty, engaging protagonist who can keep readers laughing and help young geeks feel good about themselves... Delightful, highly logical, and well-informed fun." ― Kirkus “Snappy and smart. [R.A. Spratt's] clever plotting moves the action right along. Everything ends with a giant cliffhanger, which will definitely leave readers ready for more.” ― BookPage R.A. Spratt is an award-winning author and television writer. Her Nanny Piggins series went into nine best selling volumes in Australia. She lives in Bowral, Australia with her husband, two daughters and a puppy called Henry. Like Friday Barnes, R.A. enjoys wearing a silly hat. Phil Gosier is an independent art director and designer working in the Washington, D.C. area. His illustration and design clients include Kellogg's, the Discovery Channel, Marvel and DC Comics, and Macmillan, where he illustrates the Friday Barnes Mystery series as well as his own picture books, including Snow Beast Comes to Play . He graduated from the University of Maryland and lives in suburban Maryland with his family. Girl Detective: A Friday Barnes Mystery By R.A. Spratt, Phil Gosier Macmillan Copyright © 2014 R. A. Spratt All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-14197-2 Contents Title Page, Copyright Notice, Dedication, Chapter 1: The Beginning, Chapter 2: A Brilliant Deduction, Chapter 3: The Bank Vault, Chapter 4: How Friday Spent the $50,000, Chapter 5: A New Chapter, Chapter 6: Ow!, Chapter 7: The Nice Lady, Chapter 8: The Headmaster's Office, Chapter 9: A Problem Solved, Chapter 10: Friday's Roommate, Chapter 11: Bullying, Chapter 12: The Greek God, Chapter 13: The Swamp, Chapter 14: Fisticuffs, Chapter 15: The Stakeout, Chapter 16: The Sticky Substance, Chapter 17: The Case of the Missing Homework, Chapter 18: The Homework Is Found, Chapter 19: The Case of the A++, Chapter 20: Something Spooky, Chapter 21: The Plot Thickens, Chapter 22: More Screaming, Chapter 23: Back in the Headmaster's Office, Chapter 24: The Plan, Chapter 25: The Great Escape, Chapter 26: The Reckoning, Chapter 27: In Conclusion, Under Suspicion Teaser, About the Author, Also by R. A. Spratt, Copyright, CHAPTER 1 The Beginning Friday Barnes was not an unhappy child. That said, she wasn't deliriously over the moon either. She was just left to get on with things. You see, Friday Barnes was the youngest of five children. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Five children! Her mother must have been so busy. What a workload! What a chaotic house they must have had!" Well, that's not how it was at all. Friday's mother was a very systematic woman. You don't get a PhD in theoretical physics if you're not good at being methodical. And that is how Mrs. Barnes approached child rearing. She decided she wanted children, so she allocated four and a half years out of her career to have them. She spaced them exactly eighteen months apart, and when the oldest started school and the younger two were in day care, she went back to work. Now, I'm sure if you're good at math, you will have noticed that if you have children eighteen months apart over a four-and-a-half-year period, that gives you four children in total. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes had their four children, and everything went according to plan. They taught them to read with flash cards, they sent them to the best after-school math courses, and they even allowed them to participate in sports. If you call yoga a sport. Then, nine years later, just as their youngest child was gaining early admission