Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

With this debut book of a new mystery series, Wendelin Van Draanen establishes Samantha Keyes as a crime fighter to watch. Though, actually, the book opens with Sammy watching...a crime in progress. And when the man with the wad of cash in one hand and the open purse in the other catches Sammy watching him, the chase is on--but is Sammy on the trail of the thief, or is he on hers? If the police don't believe Sammy's story about a thief with black gloves, black glasses, and a black beard, she isn't too surprised.