The reader, as a young detective, investigates a murder mystery. By choosing specific pages, the reader determines the outcome of the plot.

A locked door, a dead body. A millionaire industrialist dies under suspicious circumstances by an overdose of a prescription medication. But there is one peculiar circumstance. The victim had contacted his attorney to change his will only days before his demise, making the death all the more suspicious. Could someone have murdered the man to keep him from rewriting his will? Or was the death a suicide, or even perhaps an accidental overdose? Whodunit? Certainly not the butler. But only the reader can tell. Each ending reflects an "alternate reality" in which different choices and character dynamics lead to different conclusions of the story. Find your favorite ending, for only the reader can decide if it was murder, suicide, an accident, or something else ... Each twist and turn in the investigation by the detective brings a different conclusion to the story. The ten unique alternate endings allow the reader to choose their own favorite solution to the mystery--ten novels in one book!

Detective Fiction for Young Readers is an examination of contemporary mystery stories for children and young adults. This volume explores how the conventions, rules, and expectations of adult mystery fiction have filtered down, so to speak, especially in the past several decades, to writing for younger readers. The book is organized into three sections that explore the whodunit, the hardboiled, and the metaphysical styles of mystery fiction. Furthermore, this text analyzes how each style has been adapted for a younger audience, acknowledging and exploring representative novels most in keeping with that style. This volume is ideal for students, academics, and readers interested in children’s mystery fiction that adheres to formulas made popular after the golden age of classic detective fiction.

When Nathan discovered a job lot of the first 106 adventures for sale on eBay, there was never any question that he would place a bid. When the books arrived, he lost himself in the old adventures. Yet, as he flicked through the pages, there was another story being written. In the margins of each book were the scribblings of the little boy who had once owned them, a little boy by the name of Terence John Prendergast. Terence wrote jokes and hints for adventurers following the same stories as him. More troubling, among the notes were intimations of a tormented childhood: of the boys and teachers who bullied him; of the things he hated about himself and had to improve; of his thoughts of suicide and his desperate need to find friends, be liked, and find somebody - anybody - to confide in. THE BOY IN THE BOOK is Nathan's poignant recreation of the discovery of the fragments of Terence Prendergast's diary, his quest to find the lost boy, and the friendship that resulted from their first meeting. In doing so, Nathan is forced to examine his own childhood - and, as his relationship with Terence deepens, he begins to believe that the two men are not so different, and to reflect on the darkness that can exist in childhood.