As a reward for helping Lucky O'Leary track down his stolen lottery ticket in The Lucky Lottery, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are on a complementary trip to Wheat Ranch in Bozeman, Montana. There, they meet the Wheat family--Ma, Pa, and Jud--their cook, Lulu, and their hired hand, Thumbs. Meanwhile, the ranch has several other guests that help build up a much larger suspect pool than is typical for A to Z Mysteries books. These characters include Ed Getz, a magician who wants to be an actor; Fionna Nippit, a nurse; and Seth and Bonnie Clyde, a pair of honeymooners.
Before the mystery gets underway, two nights pass at the dude ranch. On the first day, Jud tells the kids a campfire story about a vengeful grizzly stalking the ranch... and on the second day, Josh finds a huge nugget of gold while he and the other guests are learning to pan. But on the third day--about halfway through the book--the mystery arrives on the scene when Josh's gold is stolen from the ranch's safe. Atypically for the series, there are, as I've said already, a whole slew of suspects, one of whom is an incredibly obvious "choice" (which, of course, means that he's a red herring). Amusing, there's also a red herring thrown in for adults. You'd think the character called "Bonnie Clyde" would turn out to be a crook, right? As it turns out, nope--for once, the character with the crime pun for a name didn't do it.
As usual for the A to Z Mysteries series, it's a cute story that the target audience should find sufficiently mystifying, and any adults reading along won't be excruciatingly bored. Highly recommended to mystery fans and young readers.