Twelve-year-old Sona is preparing for an English proficiency exam that will determine whether she can attend the Darjeeling International School. She dreams of becoming a teacher and helping to support her family so that they are less reliant on her mother's position harvesting tea at a local plantation. Sona's best friend, an older neighbor named Tara, lives with a cruel uncle who is planning to use the jewelry that should be her inheritance as a dowry for an arranged marriage in which Tara wants no part. When the jewelry goes missing, Sona worries that her older brother will be blamed and is determined to solve the mystery not only to help her friend, but also to protect her family and their name.

The international setting and unique premise of this middle grade mystery make it stand out among others in the genre; they also add urgency and emotional resonance to the story. While there is a good bit of background-building leading up to the mystery itself, Perkins skillfully brings to life the Darjeeling region and the difficulty of life on a tea plantation, and deftly explores themes relating to labor rights, arranged marriage, socioeconomic status & classism, water access, colonialism, and education. Further, the age difference between twelve-year-old Sona and nearly-eighteen-year-old Tara makes the book accessible both to upper middle grade readers as well as teen readers who are building their reading proficiency, stamina, and/or confidence. An engaging, ultimately hopeful mystery, and an especially good choice for librarians or educators working to diversify their fiction or mystery collections.

This middle grade novel features a BIPOC character, explores her culture and has the fun of a mystery - a huge win for teachers looking for diverse books for their classroom libraries!

When gold jewelry goes missing, the main character, Sona, decides to solve the mystery. The gold is part of a dowry for her friend, Tara, who has lost her parents. It has also been in the family and passed down. Sona must think carefully about the suspects, so that she can help her friend. Set in Darjeeling, readers will learn about life on a tea plantation, the cultural significance of dowries/gender norms/arranged marriages, and explore unfair labour practices. It has a decent level of mystery while not being too scary. I would definitely recommend this book and consider purchasing a copy for my classroom library. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

Twelve-year-old Sona dreams of becoming a teacher, with an English exam standing between her and a scholarship at the Darjeeling International School. She'd love extra tutoring, but money is tight. Her mother works hard as. tea picker at the plantation, and her brother sold tea at a corner stall until his business collapsed, and he now owes a lot of money to the plantation manager.

When her friend Tara, the plantation manager's niece, invites her to see her gold inheritance before she's thrust into an arranged marriage. Only minutes after viewing the gold, it is stolen. Sona wasn't supposed to be in the house, nor was her brother, and neither can afford to take the blame. Determined to find out what happened to the gold, Sona sets out to solve the mystery and absolve her brother's name.

This is a great little novel that packs a punch. It's obvious that Perkins researched deeply, and she presents an often overlooked area of the world and the cultures that exist with the Darjeeling district. Topics explored within the mystery include plantation work and workers rights, water scarcity, social and familial hierarchies, language barriers and arranged marriage. I did find it hard to keep up with the various terms of address used between characters, as age and relationship factor greatly into these. Additional back matter elaborating on this, and even on the history and geography of the area, would further enhance the learning opportunities in this book.

A great option for a novel study, with plenty of jumping off points for discussion.

This is a good middle grade mystery with an endearing protagonist, but I had a hard time keeping a lot of the other characters straight.

There are so many reasons I love this middle-grade:
- It's deeply anchored in its Indian setting; there are no non-Asian characters.
- It does not feel exotic; Sona is relatable to young preteen girls even if their life circumstances are very different.
- Perkins does a great job of introducing difficult subjects like arranged marriages and unfair labor practices in an age-appropriate way. At the same time, this is a book I can recommend to teen readers who aren't confident in English, and they will have deeper understandings of many of the issues mentioned. They won't feel this is too young for them.
- The mystery is not too easily solved. At one point, I did guess who the thief was but I was never sure (and actually had another suspect higher on my list.)
- The story is hopeful and fun.
- The book is longer than a chapter book but short enough to not be off-putting for less able readers.

I'm always looking for good books for the global libraries I work with and this fits the bill. It looks like it will be the start of a series. I certainly hope so!

In this story, a young girl solves a real-life mystery through her courage, compassion, language skills, and smarts. It's set in the village surrounding a tea plantation in Darjeeling, India, and does a great job of introducing readers to terms and concepts from that culture in a way that is not overwhelming. Young American readers will learn about a time and place they are probably not familiar with, and will be challenged with themes including water scarcity, poverty, the effects of colonialism, arranged marriages, and workers' rights. The protagonist, Sona, is a great role model. It's not so much a cutesy mystery as a real-life situation where Sona has to figure out what happened in order to protect her loved ones. It's also a quite short chapter book so would be good for reluctant readers or a classroom read aloud.

Some gold jewelry goes missing and Sona decides to solve the mystery. The gold is the dowry that is left to her best friend, Tara, when her parents died, and has been in the family for ages. Her uncle planned to use it to get her married off to an old geezer, but Tara doesn’t want to marry him, or anyone else.

There are many suspects, and the Sona goes through the logic of who might have stolen it, and questions them.
This is an interesting sort of mystery, set in the background of a tea plantation in Darjeeling. The reader has the same clues that Sona does, as we go through each possible suspect.

The nice thing about this mystery is that while there is a deadline, and bad things could happen, and while the story holds these bad things over our heads, as the story progresses, the story resolves without any of the really bad things happening to Sona, although there are some scares.

This sort of mystery is perfect for beginning readers, because while they can be scared along with Sona, they won’t get too turned off to not want to read the story. I know when I was beginning to read, and it is true even today, if I feel there is going to be a bad outcome before the good finale, I will stop reading it.


So, good quick read. And the reader gets to learn about tea plantations, and the hard life therein.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is being published on the 7th of October 2025.