The Secrets of Stone Creek

Finley’s dreams of achieving celebrity ring true, but while she spells out her grievances and grandiose hopes in repetitive detail, her quarry, Meggie, remains out of focus, her story too thin to explain its decadeslong grip on her hometown.... Best for patient readers. 

With best friend Sophie Higgins off to spend spring break with new friends, seventh grader Finley Walsh feels abandoned and bereft when her mother drops her and her brothers off for the week with a cousin in Stone Creek, Vt. But Finley, who cofounded an adventure agency with Sophie back in first grade, is soon sucked into the town's highly marketed obsession with Meggie Riley, a resident who has been missing for 20 years after having discovered a cache of high-ticket antiques as a child. Seeking to collect the substantial reward and win Sophie back, Finley sets out to solve the mystery, regularly referencing the acts of historical heroines from volume 100 of the World's Greatest Female Adventurers. Rebranding her agency to include her siblings forces family cooperation and confrontation, especially between Finley and 13-year-old brother Oliver, whom she resents as their mother's favorite. Escalating suspense propels an increasingly dangerous investigation into small-town secrets that feels at times overly complex. McDonald (Pepper's Rules for Secret Sleuthing) studs Finley's first-person narrative with references to figures such as Nellie Bly, Anne Bonny, and Bessie Coleman, as the child's desperate need to prove herself as a successful adventurer evolves toward an increasingly thoughtful, mature worldview. Most characters cue as white. Ages 8-12. Agent: Jennie Kendrick, Red Fox Literary. (Nov.)