THUNDER AND MERCY

In late 1970s Philadelphia, a lonely preteen finds a 200-year-old letter and uncovers a Revolutionary War–era secret.

At nearly 12, Theodora “Thunder” Underwood is used to being alone. Every summer, while her scientist parents travel for research, she’s shipped off to a different relative or professor friend of theirs, and every summer, she feels out of place and in the way. But when she arrives in Philadelphia to stay with eccentric Aunt Hazel at her historic mansion, Mount Pleasant, Thunder dreams of making a discovery that will put her on the path to becoming a historian. On her very first day there, she finds, hidden in the floorboards, a letter written in 1780 by a previous inhabitant, one 11-year-old Miss Margaret Percy, who goes by Mercy. Suddenly, Thunder is swept up into a story of intrigue, treason, spies, and daring escapes. The letter references Mercy’s journal, concealed somewhere within Mount Pleasant, which may hold the key to momentous events. But in order to find the journal and solve the puzzle, Thunder will have to do something she’s never done before: trust new friends. An adventure in the vein of Varian Johnson’s The Parker Inheritance and Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin’s The Bletchley Riddle, this novel has strong secondary characters and a well-established setting that carry it through the slow parts of the plot. Except for an enslaved historical character, the main cast presents white.

Fun and engaging historical intrigue.