Mayhem on Maui

Hello, world! My full name is Konstantina Cassandra Flanagan, but my friends call me K.C. My older brother Rudy says that K.C stands for Kook Case! I am 14 and three quarters years old and I live in Montreal, Canada with my father, James Flanagan, Esq. and his significant other, the famous photo-journalist Linda Hébert. Dad Is a lawyer for an international construction company, so when he travels, he usually works. My mom Trina Gigantes is a sculptress who lives in Dallas with an oilman named Darrell Hughes. He's pretty swift. And rich! As you probably guessed, my parents are divorced, and our family is all over the place, but what the heck, we're ready for the new millenium. At least, that's how I see it. My brother Rudy is 18, almost. His hobbies are sports, sports, sports and girls, girls, girls. Actually, he is pretty smart when he applies himself to something and, like all my friends tell me, he's cute too. But don't tell him that! I guess he's an all right kind of brother, even if he never believes me at first when I stumble across crime. And believe you me, I do stumble across crime! As you might imagine, my extended-blended parental units travel a lot and when we're not in school Rudy and I go long with them. What I like about travel is, you never know what you'll find when you get where you're going. Last year, for example, we went to the Grand Canyon. We all rode burros down the canyon wall and I was bitten by a rattlesnake. Luckily the guide had an antidote so the snakebite only made me a little bit sick. But I fully intend to get even, and soon. I just discovered a Chinese restaurant that serves snake in black bean sauce! Anyway, I'm keeping this journal to chronicle my life so that someday when I'm a famous and respected archaeologist it'll be easy for people to read my autobiography right up to the moment when I find the Holy Grail. Or maybe the Lost City of Atlantis, whichever comes first. Also, because I get extra credit for my English composition class. I'll write more later. I have a lot to tell about my latest adventure, with my mom, on the Hawaiian island paradise of Maui, and about a pretty mean Yakuza gangster named Hiroshi I met there. - excerpt from K.C.'s travel diary "K.C. is a wily and brave heroine... Satisfying mystery that sets a brisk pace. Will work well where mysteries are popular (and where are they not?) and in conjunction with social studies or multicultural units." (School Library Journal)