A middle-grade mystery set in the American South serves up murder and mayhem with a side of hot mustard. After his Marine hero father died five years ago, Cooper Steven Goodman and his mother, Delilah, took up residence with his paternal grandfather, Dr. Harley Goodman, in bucolic Windy Bottom, Georgia. (Despite the setting and several Civil War references, race plays no part in the story, and all characters are assumed white.) Now 13, Coop spends most of his time with best friends Justice and Liberty, brother-and-sister twins whose parents co-own A Latté Books, Windy Bottom's only bookstore/cafe, with Coop's mother. A few days before seventh grade begins, a playground renovation disinters the earthly remains of Tabby Goodman, Coop's grandmother, who allegedly skipped town four decades earlier, and shatters the small town's idyllic peace. As evidence stacks up, Coop reckons with revelations that rattle his family's history. How could he have known his grandmother was the heiress to a shipping fortune? That his grandfather jilted his high school sweetheart when he returned from college? That Gramps' lifelong injunctions against drinking and gambling are rooted in practice, not principle? Coop's narration, playful language, nuanced characters, intricate plotting, and a bittersweet conclusion help transform a slow-as-molasses whodunit into a race against the clock. Can Coop and his friends clear Gramps' name in time--or is everything he thought he knew a lie? An engrossing, good-humored page-turner. (Mystery. 9-13) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Windy Bottom is the kind of sleepy southern town where everyone knows everyone else. When a body is unearthed in the local playground, word gets around almost immediately, but 13-year-old Coop is one of the first to hear about it. However, when the body is identified and the beloved town doctor--his own grandfather--is suspected, the mystery becomes more than a simple summer diversion. With the help of his friends and neighbors, Coop begins digging up unexpected secrets and piecing together the truth. Souders' small town is populated with a cast of quirky characters that are a pleasure to spend time with, from a baking-obsessed undertaker to the helpfully chatty barber, and it's awfully fun to watch young Coop untangle the web with the help of an ever-growing list of questions and a string-tangling case board. Artfully composed and offering several genuine surprises, this mystery will have young readers speeding through it in a quest to uncover the truth.

After his dad died five years ago, 13-year-old Coop and his mother moved to Windy Bottom, Ga., to live with the boy's paternal grandfather. Construction at the local playground unearths a skeleton that is soon revealed to be that of Coop's grandmother, who left when Coop's dad was young. Everyone assumed she had abandoned the family--a terse note from the fashionable woman said she had to get away from small-town life--but it now seems that she was murdered. Suspects begin to emerge, from the town funeral director, who bakes muffins that reek of formaldehyde, to a family that has long hated Coop's. When his grand-father becomes a person of interest, Coop, an avid mystery reader who has just come into his father's old Hardy Boys books, becomes determined to find out who committed the crime, even if that person is Gramps. Delightfully quirky townsfolk and details of small-town life create the perfect backdrop for this deftly plotted mystery by Souders (How to Ruin Your Summer). Well-placed red herrings and clues will have readers guessing until the truth comes out. Ages 8--12. Agent: Sally Apokedak, Apokedak Literary. (July)

Gr 4--6--Summer is winding down in Windy Bottom, GA, and Cooper "Coop" Goodman and his friends can barely contain their curiosity when construction at the town playground uncovers a human skeleton buried under the rusty slide. Coop's excitement is soon replaced by worry when his beloved Gramps is implicated in a long-unsolved crime. Convinced of Gramps' innocence, Coop and his twin pals, Liberty and Justice, set out to solve the mystery and clear his name. Coop winds up suspended from school and grounded by his widowed mom, but, as the title suggests, he indeed "knows the scoop" by the end of the story. The mystery itself is intriguing, but it doesn't take off until almost halfway through the book. Much of the earlier chapters are devoted to introducing Windy Bottom's abundant quirky residents and offering plentiful details of the town's quaintness, which may lose some readers' attention. And while some of the clues are subtle and well placed, others are so obvious that it's not clear how Coop manages to miss them. VERDICT An additional purchase for libraries with plenty of voracious, and patient, mystery readers.--Dana West, Roosevelt H.S., Seattle, WA