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"Get a Clue at Your Library" -- it's the theme of Moffat County Library's summer reading program.

In keeping with a mystery theme, activites include whodunits, mystery hunts, a CSI event and lots more.

On July 21, when "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows"(Book 7 and the last of the series) comes out, the library will host a special event.

Besides that?

There's regular story hour and a story hour at the park. The summer reading program is for adults, too.

When I was at the library recently, I found this week's book, for young adults, in a special mystery display. "Open and Shut Cases: 40 More Mini-Mysteries for You to Solve" is the second in a series of three books. They're written and illustrated by Jurg Obrist.

The reader of this book is invited to tag along as detectives Ridley Long, dressed in a tattered coat, and Daisy Pepper, wearing spectacles and hoop earrings, go about their job. Can the reader help solve the mysteries? Detailed illustrations, codes, and drawings to sequence provide clues.

In "A Mysterious Moustache," the first mini-mystery, Major Pensley has had a shock. Someone has drawn a big, ugly moustache on his portrait. The artist had just delivered the painting yesterday.

Daisy Pepper is on the case. Right away she has a suspect. That's because just yesterday Nero Schlotzing had been complaining that the major had used taxpayers' money to pay for his portrait. He said he'd show Pensley.

So at 8 A.M., Daisy shows up at Schlotzing's door.

Right off the bat, she accuses him of drawing the moustache on the portrait, but Schlotzing says he hasn't set foot outside the door for the last twelve hours.

Daisy knows better. Can the reader find Daisy's proof?

There's a lot to study in the illustration of Schlotzing's

home. Kitchen stuff, clothes scattered about, several clocks, a thermos, an open drawer full of papers, and lots more items are there to study, and Daisy finds the evidence that Schlotzing was, indeed, out of the house- and recently, too.

Can the reader find the proof? If not, the answer is at the book's end.

In "Strange Occurrences at Whistle Horn," Daisy and the reader have to figure out which four keys unlock a door. There's a whole bunch of keys, with tags, scattered on the floor.

Finding out what changed in an old mansion between yesterday and today (the reader studies two drawings) is the key for Daisy and Ridley's finding Stalkey's hideout in "Is Hobbard Mansion Stalkey's Hideout?"

And these are only three examples from the forty mini- mysteries in the book. It's all great fun.

The author originally wrote the books in German, but after living in the United States for many years, his English was good enough for him to translate the books himself. It included words in the artwork, too.

This week's book is published by Millbrook Press, a division of Lerner Publishing group. The translation copyright is 2006.

The paperback book costs $6.95. ISBN 0-7613-2344-9

Copyright Diane Prather, 2007. All rights reserved.