Middle

The debut mystery that kicked off the popular series about a live-wire girl detective, this Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning story takes place in Sammy's neighborhood - right across the street from her grandmother's apartment, in fact.

It's Christmas, but leave it to Sammy Keyes to find trouble even in the midst of the holiday parade. Trying to help a friend, she reluctantly volunteers on the Canine Calendar float, only to have the famous cover dog dog-napped on her watch! The animal's owner orders Sammy to find the dog before the $50,000 ransom being demanded comes due.

In her most dangerous mystery to date, Sammy runs into a strange girl trying to escape from a scary looking guy at the mall. When the girl asks Sammy to watch her shopping bag and then flees, Sammy is alarmed to discover that inside the bag is a baby!

In this fifth Sammy Keyes mystery, the normally unflappable heroine encounters a corpse, an arsonist, and an irate policeman - and her first real experiences with adolescent angst.