The story begins with Harper's life in an upheaval. She was living a quiet, fairly happy life on a Chester County farm in southeastern Pennsylvania when her parents abruptly split -- her mom to pursue a career in archeology at a museum in Manhattan, her dad staying on the farm he loves. They go their separate ways, and by extension Harper and her younger brother Bodhi must trade their bucolic lifestyle for a new life in New York.

Harper doesn't like the big city, and even their view overlooking Central Park -- her mom's new job must pay really well! -- doesn't mollify her, although the gift of a brand new cellphone does make things a little better.

But her attitude changes once she begins exploring the massive park -- their mom gives Harper and her brother a fair amount of freedom there while she's at work -- and one day she ends up meeting and befriending a varied collection of children her own age while searching for her missing brother. The find him, but they also find a dead body under a bridge, and the Central Park Irregulars are born to investigate.

Although they do report the body to the police, they don't turn over the victim's phone, which Bodhi for no particular reason snatched from the scene. The youngsters all have complementary skill sets and knowledge that makes them an efficient team, and one of them figures out how to hack into the phone and access the victim's texts and photos. They quickly uncover a conspiracy to commit fraud and theft, a high-stakes scheme that likely got the man killed ... and, coincidentally enough, it turns out that most of the kids have a parent who is tangentially connected to the case.

Since they don't trust the detective assigned to the case not to screw up the investigation and arrest one of their parents by mistake, the Central Park Irregulars decide to continue concealing the stolen evidence until they solve the case themselves.

It's a lively adventure, with bold and clever kids matching wits with international thieves and murderers. That is, of course, where the reality of the book falls disappointingly short -- the children should have involved the police (and their parents) much earlier in the process, instead putting their lives -- and the lives of their parents and a kindly old Shakespearean actor -- at risk. It stretches the bounds of credulity to believe they'd hide so much evidence and take so many clever but dangerous steps in their investigation without letting the detective in on their discoveries.

That caveat aside, The Central Park Irregulars is the kind of young-adult mystery I would have devoured as a pre-teen, then asked for the sequel. Things wrap up a little too neatly, with happy resolutions fixing every remaining problem, but the story is quite enjoyable and the kids are a likable gang of wannabe sleuths. I suspect author Paul Cicchini is already hard at work on another adventure for Harper and Bodhi and their new friends Addie, Eli, Gabriel and Zara.