Closed for the season : a mystery story

Title:

Author:

Summary:

When thirteen-year-old Logan and his family move into a run-down old house in rural Virginia, he discovers that a woman was murdered there and becomes involved with his neighbor Arthur in a dangerous investigation to try to uncover the killer.

Audience:

4.3 Follett Library Resources

5-8 Follett Library Resources

Physical Description:

182 p. ; 22 cm.

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Subject Term:

Murder -- Juvenile fiction.

Neighbors -- Juvenile fiction.

Friendship -- Juvenile fiction.

Geographic Term:

Virginia -- Juvenile fiction.

Publisher:

Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,

Publication Date:

2009

ISBN:

9780547084510

Publication Information:

Boston : Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.

Call Number:

M HAHN

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002275447	Middle Fiction	HAHN	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A contemporary thriller by the bestselling author of The Old Willis Place .

Two 13-year-old boys, Arthur and Logan, set out to solve the mystery of a murder that took place some years ago in the old house Logan's family has just moved into. The boys' quest takes them to the highest and lowest levels of society in their small Maryland town, and eventually to a derelict amusement park that is supposedly closed for the season.

Author Notes

Mary Downing Hahn grew up in College Park, Maryland. After graduating college, she worked as an art teacher, a college instructor, and a children's librarian in Prince George's Public Library System. She published her first novel, The Sara Summer, at the age of 41. Since then, she has been a full-time writer and averages one book a year. Her ghost story Wait till Helen Comes was the winner of 12 state children's book awards and she received the Scott O'Dell award for her World War II novel Stepping on the Cracks. She currently lives with her husband in Columbia, Maryland.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-8-Another well-done, action-packed mystery from Hahn. This book starts off as seventh-grader Logan Forbes learns that a murder had been committed in his family's new house three years earlier. Myrtle Donaldson, a bookkeeper accused of embezzling from the local amusement park, was found dead in her ransacked house and her killer is still at large. Logan's next-door neighbor, Arthur Jenkins, a sixth grader with a bottomless stomach and a quirky personality, is convinced that Mrs. Donaldson was falsely accused, and he wants Logan to help him find the real perpetrator. The boys discover a letter and puzzle left among the woman's possessions that convinces them they are on the right track. Their investigation includes visiting the abandoned and overgrown Magic Forest amusement park, a reporter with secrets, shady property developers, a menacing convict, and purloined library materials. It all culminates in a terrifying nighttime showdown among the kudzu at the Magic Forest where the truth is revealed. This is an enjoyable mystery with just the right amount of frightening and dangerous elements to entice readers. Logan is a sympathetic character-a new kid in town trying to find his place in the pecking order, almost immediately befriended by someone on the lowest rung who turns out the be the right friend for him.-Terrie Dorio, Santa Monica Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.