The 10-minute detective

Sample

Carolyn Keene

It's hard to write a mystery story when the plot disappears! Nancy, Bess, George, and Phoebe Archer team up to write a mystery for a class project. Everyone else in the class is on teams too, and the best story will be printed in the school newspaper. First, snooty Brenda Carlton tells the girls they have no chance of winning -- then the notebook in which they wrote their mystery disappears! The girls had a neat idea for a ghost story, and now another team may have stolen it. Things get weird when they find notes written in drippy red writing -- with words that come straight from their story! Is the make-believe mystery coming true?

Sample

Faye Kellerman

Once Dr. Emil Euler Ganz was a preeminent astrophysicist with a world-renowned reputation. But then he vanished without any warning to his family or colleagues. Fifteen years later, he reappeared as "Father Jupiter," the founder and charismatic leader of the scientific cult, The Order of the Rings. And now he's dead--a vial of sleeping pills and an empty bottle of vodka standing near his lifeless body.Was Ganz's death an accident? Suicide? Or did someone hasten Jupiter prematurely out of this world? These are the questions LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker and his Homicide team are determined to answer as they enter the cult's fortresslike compound. But the dead leader's four "privileged" attendants make it clear that the police are not welcome there--and the mysterious disappearance of two of the Order's members, including a child, turns an already uncomfortable situation even uglier and more incendiary. Decker will need more than the wisdom and support of his wife, Rina Lazarus, to defuse a ticking time bomb of jealousy, greed, bizarre hidden pasts, and deadly secrets--one that could explode at any time into mayhem so pernicious that it threatens to destroy a multitude of misguided lives--and scores of helpless, innocent children as well.

Sample

Sarah L. Thomson

Sam (a puzzle master) and Martina (a history whiz) become involved in a dangerous quest to find seven keys left behind by Benjamin Franklin and a secret society of descendants, which, when gathered together, unlock a powerful weapon, so the middle schoolers must solve the puzzles, find the artifacts before the bad guy does, and save the nation.

Sample

Enid Blyton

The Secret Seven have a brand-new meeting place in a hidden cave, but somebody else has been using it too. And there are signs of a mailbag robbery! Whoever's been there, they'll return at night -- and the gang is determined to put a stop to it. They'll catch the cheeky intruder, whatever it takes.