The Law of Finders Keepers

Starred review from August 1, 2018
Grades 4-6 *Starred Review* It's a rare snowy day in eastern North Carolina when a bombastic out-of-towner arrives in Tupelo Landing to hunt for Blackbeard's treasure. Sixth-graders Mo, Dale, and Harm form a rival team of searchers with the advantage of local knowledge, friends, and relations. Meanwhile, new clues emerge regarding Mo's Upstream Mother. Pulled from a nearby river during a hurricane flood as an infant and taken in by her beloved family of choice (Miss Lana and the Colonel), Mo yearns to know about her blood kin. Mo, Dale, and Harm follow up every lead that might help uncover her past. As readers learned in the previous series volumes, beginning with Three Times Lucky (2012), Turnage's fine-tuned talent for storytelling is as evident as her understated, irrepressible humor and her creative ability to turn a phrase, such as Mo's description of an unsympathetic character after a disappointment: his face going as soft and pale as raw dumplings. While the plot and subplots veer off in unexpected directions, they intertwine at points before the satisfying conclusion. The large, intergenerational cast of idiosyncratic characters enriches this first-person narrative at every turn. Amusing, dramatic, and tender, this memorable chapter book is the final volume of the Mo & Dale Mystery series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2018
In this fourth entry about Mo and Dale (beginning with Three Times Lucky, rev. 7/12), sixth graders Mo LoBeau, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, and Harm Crenshaw are still operating their world-famous Desperado Detective Agency. This time up, they have two mysteries to solve. The first brings new evidence concerning Mo's continuing search for her biological mother, and the second plays on North Carolina lore as they pursue Blackbeard's lost treasure. Having previously introduced the various inhabitants and setting of Tupelo Landing and established the main characters, here Turnage is free to concentrate on plot and her signature down-home Southern language. Characters grow and reveal their own complexities throughout the course of the novel: Harm must come to grips with his relationship with his mother, Mo needs to think about her mixed feelings for Harm, and Dale requires kissing lessons in preparation for Valentine's Day. But the heart of the novel is the mysteries, and the solution to both involves more sophisticated detective work than the Desperados have employed before. This is a sit-back-and-let-the-story-carry-you kind of novel, but one that leaves questions of family and community for readers to ponder after the last page is turned. betty carter

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2019
The Desperado Detective Agency (Three Times Lucky etc.) now has two mysteries to solve--one concerning Mo's continuing search for her biological mother, the other Blackbeard's lost treasure. Turnage focuses on plot and her signature down-home Southern language. Characters grow and reveal their complexities, but the heart of the novel is the mysteries, and their solutions involve more sophisticated detective work than the Desperados have employed before.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from July 15, 2018
In the fourth and final book in the series that began with Three Times Lucky (2012), "possible orphan" Mo LoBeau comes up against an adversary slicker than motor oil on a pond and discovers clues to the whereabouts of her long-missing Upstream Mother.The search for Blackbeard's treasure brings professional treasure hunter Gabriel Archer into Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, with a lot of oily talk and shady intentions. When Miss Lana and the Colonel give Mo a box that was set aside for her when she floated into their lives on a signboard 12 years earlier, Mo's search for her Upstream Mother is reinvigorated with new clues. Soon Mo and her faithful cast of characters--Dale, Harm, Lavender, and Queen Elizabeth the dog, as well as the ever hateful though sometimes surprising Atilla--must juggle the search for worldly treasures as well as treasures of the heart. Turnage brings a lively cast rich with heartfelt emotion and quick-witted charm. Exceptional command of voices delivered with wit propels this fast-paced treasure-hunt tale into a pitch-perfect delight: "Stole is such a harsh word," the mayor says when discussing how the cache came to Tupelo Landing. "Let's say she set it free and it didn't come home to him." The book assumes a white default.Lovers of the previous books will delight in the return of Mo, and if they can get through the end without welling up, they're tougher than most--it's absolutely worth the wait. (Fiction. 8-12)

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