A Maddie Mystery series, Book 1

Middle Grade Mystery, Children’s Mystery.

Date Published: 05/21/2024

Publisher: EverImagine Books (an imprint of Harbor Lane Books, LLC.)

Maddie’s life is a mess. Along with the usual hassles of eighth grade, her best friend Rachel has gone boy-crazy and seems drawn to a new crowd. To make matters worse, everyone’s teasing Maddie for impulsively breaking into her neighbor’s home when her imagination went wild thinking that she saw a mythical creature called a Yeti inside.

Then, the new neighbors pull into their driveway and Maddie thinks she sees a human hand push out the taillight of their car. Other strange events follow. Are they kidnappers? Spies? Maddie convinces Rachel to help investigate, hoping that working together will bolster their friendship. But that looks unlikely after both of them crush on the new neighbors’ son Alex.

Maddie is in a no-win situation. If she proves the new neighbors are spies, Alex will hate her. If she finds out they’re not spies and dates Alex, Rachel will hate her. But Maddie can’t resist solving a mystery and soon finds herself on a collision course with her best friend, her first crush, and the dangerous world of espionage. Her entire world – and her life – is at risk.

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About the Author

Since discovering Nancy Drew books as a child, Diana has been a lifelong mystery fan. She wrote this story to share her passion with tweens and early teens, to glorify girl power, and to pay tribute to female spies from the American Revolution. Recent FBI counterintelligence investigation of Russian spies, who portrayed themselves as typical Americans, known as Operation Ghost Stories and an American scientist who was arrested for providing intelligence to China inspired her to write this story. As a former litigator, she also drew from her experiences defending FBI prosecutorial targets and witnesses and handling a case involving someone who had led a double life. She also did research on Agent 355 of the Culper Spy Ring. She grew up near Cranbury, New Jersey, where her sister now lives. The Neighbors’ Secret is a finalist in the Connecticut Tessa Awards.

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