Spending her summer helping Grandma Kay run the Schoenhaus, a Victorian bed and breakfast, seventeen-year-old Jen soon finds that her Grandma’s plans also include solving an old mystery: the disappearance of Jen’s mother.

Jen’s mother Ellen disappeared without a trace when her daughter was still young. Even so, Jen received holiday gifts in the mail and letters signed by her mother for years. But then the communication abruptly stopped. Now Grandma Kay is convinced the letters were forged and that her daughter-in-law was murdered.

The stage is set for an elaborate Mystery Weekend at the inn. Family members and friends―including Jen’s very recent ex-boyfriend, her old childhood crush and his insufferable girlfriend―assemble and are assigned roles to play. But as the drama unfolds, Jen makes an important off-stage discovery in the Schoenhaus library. Soon her worst suspicions are aroused: could a member of her own close-knit family be responsible for her mother’s disappearance?

Kristin Wolden Nitz has penned a story that artfully combines all the necessary elements of a great mystery, sweeping readers along Jen’s path to discovery.

For Kate, ordinary life in Minnesota is just a memory, especially when she and her brothers discover a magical baby griffin while vacationing in a small Italian town. Suddenly, they find themselves in an extraordinary magical adventure of mystery and a whole world of trouble.

Kate’s father’s work has brought the family overseas to a countryside estate in Tuscany. Kate spends much of her time with her younger brother, nine-year-old Michael, roaming the beautiful estate grounds. When they find a lost baby griffin―a strange, fantastical creature with colorful downy feathers and tufts of fur―they are swept into a journey of excitement and fear, marked by the sinister Prince Eduardo.

Kate and Michael try to keep Grifonino safe and his existence a secret, but greedy paparazzi and eager scientists threaten the creature’s safety. With the help of their older brother Stephen, the siblings set out to return the magical creature to his mysterious home.

In this enchanted mixture of fantasy and adventure, author Kristin Wolden Nitz presents realistic characters with complex relationships, creating a story that middle readers will be sure to return to again and again.