THE TREASURE OF OCEAN PARKWAY

Two New York City friends have a new mystery to solve in their venerable apartment building in this sequel to 2024’s The Queen of Ocean Parkway.

Roya’s grief over the loss of her beloved Baba is slightly abated by keeping busy solving mysteries with her friend Amin and recording their podcast. Their neighbor Thea Lim-Lambert has discovered her great-grandfather Declan’s fantastical secret room hidden behind a closet containing intricately carved wooden doors and drawers, her grandfather Errol’s boyhood journal, and a note addressed to a “Lambert of the Future,” which provides a clue for a scavenger hunt in the building that leads to a valuable treasure. After Thea asks the two sleuths to help her solve this complicated mystery, the friends use their considerable skills to decipher Errol’s baffling clues, dealing with setbacks and triumphs and supporting each other through side adventures along the way. Thea sees herself as inadequate and unseen in her talented, artistic family and has difficulty accepting that Roya and Amin could be her real friends. In a nice twist, Errol, who has Alzheimer’s, has some heart-tugging lucid moments that help provide further information. The mystery is compelling, with lots of surprises and a very satisfying conclusion. Readers will love visiting Brooklyn with these exceedingly clever, kind, and compassionate characters. Thea is cued Korean and white, Amin presents Indian American, and the previous book established Roya as Iranian American. Final art not seen.

An inventive puzzle filled with tenderness and warmth.