Dead Good Detectives (Dead Good Detectives #1)

Sidonie May Jones, 12, enjoys spending time in the graveyard where her mother is buried. There, she works on her map of Fathom, the pirate-obsessed, seaside town she calls home. While exploring the graveyard's oldest corners, she discovers a long-hidden headstone for Ezekiel "Bones" Kittow, an 18th-century pirate whose ghost she inadvertently frees from his captivity inside a nearby mausoleum. Now haunted by Bones and his parrot, Sid is the only one who can help the wayward spirit take care of his unfinished business and move on to the afterlife. But Bones is being hunted by Old Scratch, his former captor. Worse, if Sid and her best friend Zen don't solve the riddle surrounding Bones's lost treasure, he'll be doomed to become a mindless wraith. This upbeat piece by McLachlan (the Land of Roar series), the first in a series, boasts ghost pirates, puzzles, and buried treasure galore. It's a lively nautical adventure and a celebration of owning one's weirdness, standing up to peer pressure, and sticking by friends when the going gets tough. Sid reads as white; Zen is Black. Ages 8-12. Agent: Julia Churchill, A.M. Heath Literary. (July)