Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Chick lit meets CSI in this snappy, stylish story of suspense, detection, and mayhem. Hapless Jasmine can't seem to stay out of outlandish predicaments, even on a family vacation at the posh Venetian in Las Vegas. While innocently sunbathing, she is pounced upon by a frantic kitty, which turns into the triggering event that eventually leads Jasmine, her annoying cousin and her Evil Hench Twin, and Jasmine's loyal posse into a nearly fatal encounter with some celebrity victims of a crooked security guard's plot. There's a whole lot of parody going on here, complete with a tricked-out totally pink mystery van for transporting our heroes in and out of dangerous situations, but Jaffe refreshes and updates the teen sleuth genre with the latest in forensic techniques. The humorous prose is as compelling as the mystery for keeping the pages turning. Zippy one-liners and killer comebacks that you wish you'd thought of ricochet across the pages as Jasmine deftly sorts through clues, nabbing not only the criminal but the cute guy as well. Witty footnotes add an extra dimension to the storytelling; here readers find chatty exchanges between other characters about Jas' blind spots, her skills as a narrator, and her dubious fashion sense, as well as all those other little side plots that go on behind the scenes of the main event. If pink is the new black, then Jas is the new Nancy Drew; fans of funny and of mystery will both curl around this one and purr.