“A treasure chest?” Alexander said doubtfully. “I bet it’s just a stump that got washed downstream. Lots of things look different than they really are.”

 

It did look like a chunk of wood. But it also looked like a treasure chest. I told myself, though, that it was more likely to be a log. As my mother always says, “If you hear hoof beats in Central Park, don’t think ‘zebra.’”

After a flood, the kids find a chest wedged in a beaver dam in Irondequoit Creek. They struggle successfully against the rushing creek and land the chest. In it, they find a mysterious map whose trail takes them through clues hidden in plain sight in 15 children’s classics. Some books are mysteries from famous series: the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden. Others are adventure stories, like The Swiss Family Robinson and My Side of the Mountain. And there are some puzzling entries: Winnie-the-Pooh and the Berenstain Bears.

As they hunt down the books and compile the references, the team realizes that the clues constitute a set of “Rules for Detecting.” Their Mystery Detective sealed these clues and sent them to the future to pass on the art of solving mysteries. But who did it? When? And why? Karen Rose and her friends are determined to use the rules from the list to find out. They get help along the way from a trusted librarian and a local school principal.

Convinced that the Mystery Detective attended McQuaid Jesuit school in the late 1970s, the Frontier Team persuades a McQuaid administrator to contact alumni. Will the Mystery Detective reveal himself? The team dangles a hook in the administrator’s email: a new trail of clues through Harry Potter books, which leads back to them.

The Mystery Detective bites. “He” turns out to be brothers. One now solves mysteries, and the other creates them: Miles is a microbiologist, and Louis owns Focus Group Games, which designs Internet adventures for kids. Thrilled that their mystery has been solved, the brothers make the Frontier Team an irresistible offer: The brothers will help with the Frontier Team’s future investigations if the kids will collaborate in developing Focus Group Games.

“Take it from us: More mysteries are right around the corner,” the brothers assure the kids. “When you know the Rules for Detecting, you don’t need to seek mysteries—they find you.”