Truly is savoring the last few days with her extended family from Texas as they gather for a reunion at Pumpkin Falls, NH. Then her cousin Mackenzie spies a brochure for mermaid camp at Cape Cod and somehow convinces her parents and Truly's parents to allow them to attend. Even though she will have an extra week with her cousin, who is also her best friend, Truly dreads mermaid camp. Despite her initial repulsion of the camp, she adjusts and learns new aquatic skills. She also discovers when they attend an author book signing at the Cape that her relative who founded the town, Pumpkin Falls, may have been a pirate who hid a treasure at a nearby lake. When the girls return to Pumpkin Falls, Truly enlists the Pumpkin Falls Private Eyes to search for the treasure.
While Truly was at mermaid camp, I was not drawn to read this book. Once she returns to Pumpkin Falls, however, I felt like the plot was more appealing and more exciting. The mystery of who stole the 4K pumpkin trophy was anticlimatic. I did not like this one as much as the other two books in the series.
I love the setting of Pumpkin Falls, the family bookstore, Truly's family, Truly's Aunt True. It is refreshing to have a realistic novel that promotes marriage (quite a few marriage proposals occur in this book) in the traditional sense.
On her website, Ms. Frederick stated that she is working on a fourth Pumpkin Falls Mystery and is not sure if she will write a fifth one. I hope she does and keeps the setting exclusively at Pumpkin Falls.
Points to discuss/warnings: Truly is going into eighth grade and wants her love interest to kiss her. The two of them are not officially dating nor have proclaimed devotion to each other, but try to kiss. They are not successful. Truly lies to her parents and sneaks out. She is caught and punished and is a bit remorseful.
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