A silly, fun, quick read, Elementary, My Dear Watkins by Mindy Starns Clark is apparently the third book in the Smart Chick Mystery series.

I purchased the book, along with four others, at a friend’s garage sale yesterday, fully intending to save all of them for the approaching read-a-thon.

I really couldn’t help myself. I looked at the stack — consisting of light reading, mostly mysteries (Clark’s being no exception) — and just had to read this one. Now.

My biggest gripe about this book was a copy-editing miss. The town Jo Tulip, the main character, resides in, is spelled two different ways in the book: Mulberry Glen, and Mulberry Glenn. Ack! I think both spellings were used about the same number of times. I usually manage to read past such flubs, but I had a difficult time ignoring this one.

I dislike reading a book in a series without starting at the beginning of the series. I didn’t realize this was part of a series until right before I started reading it, and by then I didn’t want to give it up. If I had realized before plunking over my quarters, I might not have bought it at all, but I’m glad I did. It was a nice relaxing, happy, fun read for the weekend.

Now back to Cloudstreet!