Humorous Mysteries

Underneath the steps leading down to Eric's basement is a hidden storage place. It's dusty and old, nothing special at all. But when Eric, Julie, and Neal all huddle inside the gray room together, something unbelievable happens. A glittering light and then a rainbow-colored staircase appear. As the kids take their very first step down into the mysterious land of Droon, they know that only magic and adventure await them!

Nate the Great and his trusty dog, Sludge, have a tricky case to solve. Nate's friend Rosamond has started a fortune-telling business, but her money box is missing. Sludge and Nate visit Claude, who helped Rosamond set up her business, and Finley, who collects boxes for his rat. They can't seem to help! It looks like the only way to clean up this case is to get down and dirty in the dumps!

Rebekah Daniels is just your ordinary spunky 9 year old girl living in the small town of Curtis Bay...EXCEPT she is determined NOT to be ordinary at all! Her small town is filled with mysteries and Rebekah is sure that she, along with her best friend Mouse, will be able to solve every last one of them.

Bick Kidd and his globe-trotting siblings Beck, Storm and Tommy may have completed their first treasure hunt after their father was lost at sea, but their kidnapped mother is still in the hands of nasty pirates. Their search for a rescue plan takes them down the Nile river in Africa, where they'll have to navigate everything from Egyptian pyramids in the desert to wet-and-wild jungles—not to mention life-threatening encounters with wilderness diseases, angry hippos and some seriously bad guys—in order to find the treasure and save the day.

It all starts with Hank the puppy enjoying his family's backyard home. Feathers start to fly when Hank defends his backyard against invading...phantom ducks? Hank's mother says it's a good time for him to go out on his own before the dogcatcher arrives. So Hank makes his way to the Twitchell Livestock Auction. Will he join up with Slim, the cowboy he meets there? Or will the dogcatcher provide his new home?

Ruby Redfort’s not your average kid. She’s super-smart, always ice-cool, not to mention a gadget-laden secret agent with a talent for breaking codes. And she can keep her mouth shut…can’t she? Ruby and her butler, Hitch, work for an undercover crime-busting organization, where break-ins, daring rescues, and life-or-death situations are all in a day’s work. But always remember Rule #1: You can never be completely sure what might happen next.

Someone has been stealing feed out of the feed shed, and Hank knows that it's his job to do whatever he can do to help nab the culprit. So when Slim sets a live-animal trap in the shed, Hank takes it upon himself to check it in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, the trap is a little trickier than Hank anticipated, and in the process of his investigation Hank manages to get himself...well...trapped.

Rebecca Zamolo is on a mission to save her summer. Instead of going to camp like she’d planned, she’s been stuck in summer school. But today is the day! She’s going to present her final science assignment—using her Nana’s borrowed vintage zoetrope—and then she’ll be free to have fun. But as Becca and her classmates wait for her teacher to arrive, a menacing voice comes over the intercom claiming to be the Game Master! They've locked the doors, scared off the teachers, and demanded that Becca and her friends solve the clues that have been left behind.

Leo and Remi have saved the wacky, wonderful Whippet Hotel, but their adventures aren't over. Anything is possible on the field of wacky inventions: some are scary (like a genetically altered twelve-foot chicken); some are dangerous (like a pond full of electric eels); some are completely out of control; and somehow, Leo and Remi will take it all in stride.

To celebrate her 14th birthday, Sammy’s newly found, long-lost father takes her and best friend Marissa on a cruise. As Sammy navigates her feelings about this new relationship, she and Marissa become involved in another family’s bizarre drama which includes the mysterious disappearance of the wealthy matriarch and suspicious activity by the greedy heirs.

Chet and his friends Natalie the bird and Waldo are at it again, and in this mystery, Chet must stop all the students from becoming zombies at Emerson Hicky Elementary.

A family-run haunted hotel’s livelihood is threatened when a bigger haunted hotel opens nearby in this hilarious, spooky story. Twelve-year-old Willow Ivan’s family has run the Hotel Ivan for 400 years. Through thick and thin, they’ve held on tight to their title as the Best Haunted Hotel on Mercer Street. That is, until the Hauntery – a corporate chain of haunted hotels – moves in down the street. As the Ivan’s business fades, so do their ghostly staff. And Willow begins to worry that the Ivan’s days are numbered.

Gordon Korman knows the types of books kids like to read, considering he published his first novel at the ripe old age of 12. Since then, his unique brand of offbeat humor has helped him become a New York Times best-selling author. In this third tale featuring Griffin “The Man with the Plan” Bing, a tough new principal gets on Griffin’s last nerve, and the feeling is mutual. When a valuable ring is stolen from a school display case, Griffin realizes he’s been framed for the crime.

Sherlock Bones, the world's greatest dog detective, and his trusty sidekick Dr Jane Catson are back for two more crime-solving adventures. In The Curse of the Pharoah's Mask, Bones and Catson are visiting the tombs of the ancient feline kings in Egypt when they discover that a precious mask has been stolen. But the mystery is not as straightforward as it first seems. In The Horror of the Haunted Castle, when a wealthy dog spots a ghostly figure haunting her kennel she come to Bones and Catson for help. Bones is convinced there's no such things as ghosts.

On a blustery day in late fall, Hank sneaks into the back of Slim's pickup and finds himself at a neighboring rancher's fall branding...the very neighbor, in fact, who owns the gorgeous Miss Scamper the Beagle! Unfortunately, Miss Scamper has always been a little hard to figure out, and he can't decide if she's crazy about him...or just plain crazy. And, as the day unfolds, it even begins to look like she's angling to land him in a heap of trouble with her pit bull boyfriend, Steel!

In her most dangerous mystery to date, Sammy runs into a strange girl trying to escape from a scary looking guy at the mall. When the girl asks Sammy to watch her shopping bag and then flees, Sammy is alarmed to discover that inside the bag is a baby! In her seventh adventure, the intrepid detective puts her life on the line as she confronts the seamy gang life of her hometown in her search for the baby's mother and the evil man who is threatening them all in this edge-of-your-seat mystery.

As Head of Ranch Security, Hank knows that it's his job to clear the ranch of all intruders - and that includes gophers. But when Hank's efforts to rid the yard of one such critter causes a stampede in the middle of the cattle roundup, Loper decides that he just can't take it any more. He wants Hank to learn some manners, so he's sending him to - gulp! - obedience school.

How serious is stage fright? At the Hanging Hill Playhouse, it can kill you. After narrowly escaping a malevolent spirit in The Crossroads, Zack and Judy are hoping to relax during the rehearsals for a show based on Judy's best-selling children's books. Little do they know that the director is planning to raise a horde of evil specters from the dead, and to accomplish this, he needs a human sacrifice...and Zack fits the bill perfectly.

Hayley Powell, food and cocktails columnist for Bar Harbor's Island Times, is...well, kind of broke. So when she's selected for that extreme coupon-clipping reality game show coming to town...she's thrilled, especially when her competition is nasty nurse Candace Culpepper. But when Haley stumbles across a face-down-in-the-snow Candace - scissors gleaming between her shoulders - she knows the next thing she'll be selected for will probably be a police line-up.

The Kidds - treasure hunting family extraordinaire - are heading to China on a journey that will lead them beyond the Great Wall and into the underbelly of Berlin. Bick and Beck Kidd are desperately trying to secure the ancient Chinese artifact that will buy their mother's freedom from renegade pirates.