Friday, October 7, 2022

Today's read... The Empty Cabin by Deb Mercier

 Today's read is an up-coming addition to a fun 'Choose Your Path Mystery' series. I reviewed one of these just a couple days ago here . While that one swung around ghosts in a school, this read hits a resort on a lake and a missing person. I find these perfect for October, so I was excited to see if this next book is going to be as fun as the other one. (This one comes out on the 10th!)

Ready to embody Sherlock Holmes and go on a case with me?


THE EMPTY CABIN
A Choose Your Path Mystery
by Deb Mercier
Lake 7 Creative
Middle Grade Mystery
152 pages
ages 8 to 12


COMING...
OCTOBER 10th!!!




Become a kid detective. Identify suspects, gather clues, navigate puzzles, and solve the mystery in this interactive Choose Your Path adventure.

The secluded cabin resort your parents own won’t make any “best destination” lists, but it’s the perfect place to spend a summer. There’s swimming, fishing, birdwatching—and a steady stream of visitors who, from week to week, pass in and out of your life. Except for Loretta. A regular guest of Cabin 4, Loretta is an avid hiker and a stand-in grandmother to you. So when you find her cabin empty one morning, you know that something’s wrong—even if no one else believes you.

You’re the detective in this puzzling mystery. As you work your way through the story, it’s up to you to identify suspects and gather clues. Make choices that affect what happens next. Navigate challenging puzzles—from riddles to secret codes—to build your case. Use deductive reasoning to determine what the crime was, how it happened, and whodunit. But be careful; one wrong choice could lead to your doom!

Interactive books for kids are more popular than ever. Create your own adventure with the Detective: You book series for boys and girls. You’re the main character. You make the choices. Will you solve the case?

GOODREADS  /   B&N   /   BOOK DEPOSITORY   /   AMAZON


MY TIDBITS

Become a detective and figure out clues in this fun adventure, which holds more than a couple unexpected twists.

You are working on your parent's resort for the summer, delivering towels and keeping things in shape. Every two weeks brings in new guests, but for now, you do know one of them. She's been a regular for years and almost a friend. When she mentions something about a secret, you try to figure out what she means, but before you do, she disappears. No one believes that something's wrong, but you know better and are determined to find her. First, you need to find and decipher the clues, but it isn't an easy task...and much more dangerous than you could have imagined.

This book starts out with a few pages describing how to use the book, a guide to deductive thinking, and some tips on taking notes and such. After all, the reader is now like Sherlock Holmes and needs to figure out the case. This is an easy-to-use book, which lets the reader make their own decisions for two (or sometimes more) possibilities, which then, leads them to a corresponding page, where the tale continues based on their decision. Then, this book goes further and feeds in riddles and such for the reader to decipher. Plus, it is important for the reader to take notes along the way, so they can make educated decisions. In other words, this is more than just a fun story.

The tale does flow well. The first pages, which settle the reader into their role and setting, are a little longer but does get the reader through the situations and people involved smoothly and as quickly as possible. Plus, it's fun to sink into the resort in the morning with the details. It does come to life. From there, there's never a boring moment as the clues start rolling in right along with the danger and activities. I did find it helpful that some 'clues' are highlighted to make sure readers catch them in the text. 

This is an exciting read with quite a few surprises and a wonderful way to drive those deductive thoughts. Plus, the mystery is well done.


And here she is...


Deb Mercier lives in greater Minnesota with her husband, dogs and outdoor critter friends. She is an award-winning journalist, author of 11 books for young readers, a former newspaper editor and a technical writer.

When Deb’s not dreaming up new stories, you can find her wandering the trails on bike and on foot, saving turtles from roadways and playing flute in the Central Lakes Symphony Orchestra.


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