The Vanishing Violin (32 page)

1. From clue 1 we know that the piano player lives on Hester. Put a circle around Hester in the piano player’s row. And if the piano player lives on Hester, that means no one else
can, right? So cross out all the other Hester Streets. That same clue also tells us that the piano player does
not
live in Apartment 4M, or at address numbers 127 or 301, so cross out those possibilities for the piano
.

2. Using clue 2, circle Apartment 2J for the bassoon player, and cross out Grand and Essex. Then cross out all the other 2J’s
.

3. Clue 3 gives us the xylophone player’s street—Bleecker. Circle it, and then cross out all the other Bleecker Streets, and cross out number 288 as a possibility for the xylophone. By process of elimination, you should see that the bassoon player lives on Spring Street, because it’s the only choice left! Go ahead and cross out all the other Spring Streets
.

4. The fourth clue tells us about the violinist. In his row, cross out 456, Grand, and 7A. The violinist must live on Essex, and when you cross out the only remaining Essex Street, we see that the flute player lives on Grand, and we also know that the address is 456. Be sure to cross out all the other 456’s. At this point, you have a street for every musician. We’re almost there!

5. Clue 5 is very important. Here we find that the violinist’s apartment on Essex Street is 3B. Circle it, and cross out the remaining 3B’s. Then cross out the highest (770) and the lowest (127) for the violinist, according to the clue
.

6. The sixth clue reveals that 301 is
not
the address at Spring Street and that the person at 301 is
not
the flute player. We also learn that the apartment at 301 is 5C. Because you know that the bassoon player lives on Spring Street, cross out 301 and 5C for him. The next part is a little tricky: At this point, the only musicians that could live at 301 are the violinist and the xylophone player. But since you already know that the violinist lives in Apartment 3B, he
can’t
live at 301, so cross it out. That means that the xylophone player must live in Apartment 5C at 301 and the violinist must live at 288. Circle those answers, and then cross out the other possible addresses and apartments for the
xylophone player. By POE, you’ve also revealed the piano player’s apartment to be 7A. Circle that, and cross out all other 7A’s, which, in turn, reveals that the flute player lives in 4M. Circle that answer
.

7. According to clue 7, the building on Spring Street (the bassoon player) is neither 288 nor 770. Therefore, the address must be 127
.

Aaand, the answers are:

Did you solve this? Nice work! Maybe you should think about getting your own red blazer.

Michael D. Beil’s first Red Blazer Girls installment,
The Ring of Rocamadour
, was hailed as “a PG
Da Vinci Code
… with a fun mystery, great friends, and a bit of romance”
(School Library Journal
).

Mr. Beil is a former attorney who now teaches English and helms the theater program at a New York City high school. No mere mild-mannered academic, he has also sailed, written plays, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He finds literary inspiration in horror films, Encyclopedia Brown, and
Rumpole of the Bailey
and earnestly hopes that readers will try to figure out the puzzles and codes in
The Vanishing Violin
even faster than the Blazers’ brainy Margaret.

Mr. Beil has every confidence in his readers’ tenacity and, uh, smart-itude.

In a starred review,
Booklist
called for “more Red Blazer Girls, please!” Mr. Beil suspects that further mysterious mayhem is inevitable. He and his wife, Laura Grimmer, share their Manhattan home with two dogs and two oversized cats.