The Secret Cellar

The Secret Cellar, by Michael D. Beil, is the forth installment of The Red Blazer Girls Series. I recently reread the series, and found it—if possible—to be even better than my first time through. If I was pleasantly surprised by the first one book I was astounded by the second, and the third, and the fourth.. The plot in this book was much more interesting, with richer and more believable character development, a wider variety of settings, and a plot filled with surprise and intrigue. An added bonus was the codes and riddles the girls had to decipher; they were extremely fascinating, and it was fun to try to decode them before the characters did. The writer also has a great sense of humor—the main character, Sophie St. Pierre, is hilariously honest in her narrations, and is such a funny, relatable character that more than once did I have to make an effort to not start laughing in the middle of a crowded subway car. I also love the books portrayal of the city, with its diverse and odd variety of people and places, from the small, musty violin shop run by a kind, aged Polish-man and to a small coffee shop who's one floor is partially submerged below street level, hosting a mixture of dilapidated couches and banged-up tables, arranged artfully on a sticky floor, commonly frequented by schoolgirls in vermillion blazers, who are served by baristas with oversize glasses or pink-streaked hair.

The series follows the escapades of four teens—Sophie, Margaret, Becca, and Leigh Ann—who attend St. Veronica's School on the East Side of Manhattan. After accidentally stumbling on a decades old mystery involving a famed ring, the girls find themselves presented with multiple cases. The case the girls are working on in The Secret Cellar began with Sophie attempting to find a Christmas gift for her father. She thinks she has found the perfect one in an antique fountain pen she wins at the auction of a recently diseased old man. When she finds a message hidden in the pen written by the man shortly before he died, the girls investigate. At his large house they find a vast and magnificent room where the basement should be, empty except for a large round table depicting a perfect map of the stars, with a ceiling hand painted with the planets and zodiac constellations, walls and floors tiled in blackest granite and marble, and decorated with golden medallions set in the walls and floor that are etched with designs that they discover, when turned in the right direction, unlock a hidden door to a secret cellar holding untold riches. I cannot WAIT for the next book—I'm excited to see how the story continues. I recommend it to everyone!