A bad back laid up energetic Aendi Hannah, who’s likely going stir crazy. Poppy and Sadie fix up the rooms for guests staying at the Aendi Hannah’s bed and breakfast in Middlebury, Indiana. While cleaning the guesthouse, Poppy and Sadie discover a key behind a broken baseboard. Who hid the key that looks like a skeleton’s bony finger, and why? 

Their crazy quilt clues—an old cast iron key, 70-year-old letters promising a great treasure, a lost, buried time capsule, and a hidden, secret room—lay out no real pattern or direction. The trail grows cold, like the back burner on Aendi Hannah’s big, old gas stove.

Twelve-year-old, amateur sleuth Poppy worries: Will their snoopery discover any new leads to follow? And how will the Old Order Mennonite, junior detectives find time to solve this mystery while attending school, cooking meals, and taking care of a household, plus guests?

Are the mystifying lock and treasure lost forever? Or are Poppy and Sadie on a wild goose chase in this cozy mystery in the children’s Middlebury Mystery series? 

About Holly: Holly DeHerrera grew up travelling the world as an Air Force brat. Her midwestern, Amish and Mennonite salt-of-the-earth heritage colors her point of view. Holly married a Colorado man and they enjoy adventures with their five home-schooled kids. Holly won the 2018 Writer of the Year award from Good Catch Publishing. She teaches creative writing for a Homeschool Academic Program in a public school district in Colorado Springs. In Holly’s free time, you’ll find her watching cooking shows, or writing at a local coffee shop with a white mocha and a smile.

FIC053000: Fiction: Amish & Mennonite

JUV033180: Juvenile Fiction: Religious-Christian-Mysteries & Detective

JUV044000: Juvenile Fiction: Readers-Intermediate