CODEBREAKER

In this debut, a young woman must traverse Washington, D.C., and decipher clues left by her father.

Seventeen-year-old Mia’s globetrotting family has always been close, despite their busy lives. Her father, a history professor and cryptography specialist, has moved them around the world through his various jobs in academia; her mother’s work as a freelance journalist focusing on “political unrest and social injustice” has also been well suited to travel. When her dad accepts a position at Georgetown University, the Hayes family returns to the States. Mia is trying to decide on college prospects when a night of unexpected violence upends her entire world. Set against a backdrop of fictional yet meaningfully realistic political unrest over societal wealth disparities, the story follows Mia as she finds herself on her own, trying to solve the clues in a scavenger hunt designed by her father that takes her across the city. Along the way, readers encounter ciphers that they can try to solve on their own. By chance, Mia meets Logan, a guy about her age who accompanies her through various twists and turns—and she must quickly decide whether she can trust him. The propulsive plot is peppered with their clever banter, which balances the weightier themes of social justice and Mia’s sympathetic struggle with disillusionment as she suddenly makes disorienting discoveries. Mia and Logan present white.

A smart, gripping thriller with engaging interactive elements.