THE VANISHING AT DECEPTION GAP

Four teens investigate a dangerous case in this sixth installment of a mystery series for middle schoolers.

This latest volume in Forbes’ Mystery Searchers series, about a quartet of 21st-century teen sleuths in the historic desert mountain city of Prescott, Arizona, opens with a deft Chapter 1 cliffhanger. The Mystery Searchers—Suzanne Jackson and her twin brother, Tom, and siblings Kathy and Pete Brunelli—are desperately trying to elude masked criminals at the Deception Gap Railroad Yard. (“Suzanne lay flat atop a steel-bodied boxcar, insulated from the cold metal by a light jacket, jeans, and running shoes, stomach down and churning.”) Chapter 2 takes readers back four days, to the anonymous phone call that will embroil the four high school students in their latest case, involving thievery, fraud, a missing man, and a potential murder at a remote rail yard. Conveniently, Suzanne and Tom’s father is the police chief, and the teens’ participation in criminal investigations is sanctioned by law enforcement. A friendly reporter on the local newspaper helps, too. Skillful plotting and ambient scene-setting add depth to this update of the tried-and-true teen-sleuth genre. (Suzanne’s peril is heightened by a description of boxcars stretching out before her, “shadow-like shapes lit by dimmed LEDs and a full moon in a cloudless sky.”) Current technology (GPS trackers, cellphones, a fitness watch, and WhatsApp) plays a significant role, as does a print newspaper, intriguingly enough. The author also underscores the characters’ diversity. The reporter is a refugee from Mozambique, and the missing person is a Black man. Suzanne and Tom are fair-skinned; Pete and Kathy are of Italian descent with dark hair and olive skin. Certain behavioral stereotypes are the only disappointment in this otherwise well-crafted mystery: Suzanne and Kathy “giggle,” repeatedly and unnaturally, when relating the discovery of an injured man, for example. Pete’s likability is compromised by frequent brotherly sniping and his gung-ho enthusiasm over a possible murder with little regard for the actual victim.

Vivid storytelling and a suspenseful plot with four dynamic, if sometimes stereotypical, teen protagonists.