The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family by Sarah Kapit (best selling autobiographies TXT) 📗

Dial Books for Young Readers

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York

First published in the United States of America by Dial Books for Young Readers,

an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2021

Copyright © 2021 by Sarah Pripas-Kapit

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

Ebook ISBN 9780593112304

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

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For Neil

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One: In Which a New Business Is Founded

Chapter Two: Summer School Days

Chapter Three: The Case of the Irritable Little Sister

Chapter Four: Shabbat Ruckus

Chapter Five: In Which a Mystery Presents Itself

Chapter Six: Younger Sister Problems

Chapter Seven: Cracking the Case

Chapter Eight: Words and Worries

Chapter Nine: Helena the Zebra

Chapter Ten: Of New Friends and Old Sisters

Chapter Eleven: Secret Messages

Chapter Twelve: The Unexpected Adventure

Chapter Thirteen: A Most Unusual Sighting

Chapter Fourteen: The Case of the Weird Parents

Chapter Fifteen: Unsweet Dreams

Chapter Sixteen: In Which the Investigation Resumes

Chapter Seventeen: A Crime Most Bloody

Chapter Eighteen: The Distraction

Chapter Nineteen: The Interrogation

Chapter Twenty: In Which Major Evidence Is Located

Chapter Twenty-One: An Act of Daring

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Case of the Annoying Cousin

Chapter Twenty-Three: Vermin Most Foul

Chapter Twenty-Four: In Which the Investigation Takes an Unexpected Turn

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Case of the Not-So-Happy Holiday

Chapter Twenty-Six: Things Said, Things Unsaid

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Mystery of Mistakes

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Many Regrets of Caroline Finkel

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Day of Atonement

Chapter Thirty: The Cascade

Chapter Thirty-One: The Right Words

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Final Mission

Acknowledgments

About the Author

CHAPTER ONE: IN WHICH A NEW BUSINESS IS FOUNDED

DO YOU HAVE A MYSTERY THAT NEEDS SOLVING?

Finkel Investigation Agency Solving Consequential Crimes Only (FIASCCO) is here to help!

Our team of experienced detectives can solve all/most mysteries, including theft, missing pets, and other matters requiring detecting skill and general awesomeness.

For more information, talk to Lara Finkel ASAP.

NOTE: FIASCCO cannot help find murderers. If you or someone you know has been murdered, please call a grown-up.

Lara looked over her flyer with a great big frown. It really was too bad she couldn’t come up with a name that spelled out FIASCO instead of FIASCCO. She was an excellent speller, in addition to being an excellent investigator. She didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about that. But it was too late now to change the name. Her parents had not been pleased with her printing so many copies of her flyer using the family printer, and they’d clearly stated that there would be no second edition. So Lara would just have to live with FIASCCO.

Her mother had also insisted that Lara add in the part about not solving murders. At first she’d resisted. After all, Georgia Ketteridge, Girl Super-Detective, would never turn down a murder case if she were lucky enough to find one. But given Lara’s unfortunate tendency to get nauseous whenever she saw even a drop of blood, maybe Ima had a point.

Okay, so Lara wouldn’t be solving murder cases straight off. So what? She felt completely, totally, 100 percent certain that detective work was going to be her thing. Her cousin Aviva had math, and her sister, Caroline, had art, and her brother Benny had science-y things. Now, Lara would have detecting. Which just so happened to be way cooler than any of those other things. After having read all four books in the Georgia Ketteridge series, Lara knew she could solve a real-life mystery. If only one would come to her.

It’ll come, Lara told herself. The flyers were just step one.

With her mission in mind, Lara gathered up the stack of flyers and headed for the door. It was still only the early afternoon, leaving plenty of time to redecorate the neighborhood in blazing-yellow flyers—not Lara’s favorite color, but good for getting attention. Hopefully.

For a moment Lara considered enlisting Caroline’s help in the matter. As annoying as her little sister could be—very!—Caroline usually made things more fun. She should get Caroline. Yet something inside her rebelled at the idea. Maybe Caroline was her very favorite sibling, separated by a mere fifteen months, but did that mean they had to do absolutely everything together?

No, Lara decided. It did not.

Lara paused when she reached the kitchen. Based on the too-loud talk and enticing vanilla scent, she deduced two things. First, her sister and cousin were in there. Second, they were baking cupcakes. Without her.

Stupid show-off Aviva and her stupid show-off cupcakes. As if it weren’t enough that her cousin moved in last year and immediately became the smartest kid in Lara’s grade. Apparently, she also had to bake cupcakes several times a week. They were good cupcakes, too. Lara supposed that was one reason why her sister and brothers failed to recognize the fact that Aviva was actually annoying.

Lara couldn’t help it. She marched into the kitchen.

“Hello, Lara,” her cousin said, not looking up from her mixing bowl. “We’ve already put the cupcakes in the oven. But you can still decorate them with us if you want.”

“Pretty please? It will be fun,” Caroline said. She spoke using a computer voice that came out of her tablet. That was