Three Times Lucky by Shelila Turnage

A hilarious Southern debut with the kind of characters you meet once in a lifetime

Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone's business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she's been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her "upstream mother," she's found a home with the Colonel--a café owner with a forgotten past of his own--and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known.

Full of wisdom, humor, and grit, this timeless yarn will melt the heart of even the sternest Yankee.  

All in all this was a fun book to read because of the quirky characters, unique voices, and wide variety of humor. Moses....aka Mo, is a 6th grader who lives with her "adoptive" parents; the Colonel and Miss Lana. They found Mo floating in the river after her mother sent her down river as a baby. Mo's friend, Dale helps her try to solve the case of who killed Mr. Jesse. The more the two discover, the more complex the case becomes and other people start to go missing. I would recommend this title to more mature adolescent readers due to the dialects and description of Southern culture. Definitely a fun setting.....but the plot starts to drag about half way through.  This book can be found in the Evans IMC.