The Dead Kid Detective Agency

Thirteen-year-old October Schwartz is new in town; she spends her free time in the Sticksville Cemetery and it isn't long before she befriends the ghosts of five dead teenagers, each from a different era of the past. They form the Dead Kid Detective Agency, a group committed to solving Sticksville's most mysterious mysteries.

As the Dead Kid Detective Agency embarks on its second (mis)adventure, October Schwartz and her five deadest friends are back, turning over metaphoric rocks and finding the centipedes underneath. In this latest volume, set against a backdrop of yuletide pandemonium, they discover dark supernatural forces at work in Sticksville and sleuth their way through a mystery involving a blizzard of suffragettes, ice skating disasters, anti-Asian sentiment, and the Titanic. Although the holiday season has descended upon the town like an eggnog rainstorm, October has no time for candy canes or mistletoe. She’s busy dealing with an oddly pleasant new history teacher, her two living friends’ new roles as high school radio DJs, and mysteries to be solved before the year end. October and her ghost friends are hot on the trail of those responsible for Morna MacIsaac’s death in 1914—or as hot as one can be on a 100-year-old trail—when Yumi becomes the target of a sinister harassment campaign at school. Solving dual concurrent mysteries at once won’t be easy, but the intrepid heroine in black eyeliner loves a challenge.

Is the fourth time a charm for October and her ghost detective friends? While investigating the cause of the long-dead Tabetha Scott’s death way back in the 1860s, October and the Dead Kids discover that Sticksville, Ontario, served as an endpoint for the Underground Railroad, the secret network by which enslaved people escaped to free states and Canada. But October Schwartz finds herself with more detective work than she can handle after some new musically inclined chums are incriminated in a robbery at a school concert. Fraudulent occult psychics, funeral home ambushes, band wars, the spooky Sticksville fairgrounds, and a history of prejudice all converge in a climactic conclusion that hints a secret society might be behind all manner of catastrophes in October Schwartz’s not-so-boring little town.

"Now a BBC America TV series event"--Cover.

Before becoming the first female private investigator in Botswana, eight-year-old Precious Ramotswe tracks down a thief who has been stealing her classmates' snacks.

October Schwartz and her five deadest pals are back for another crime-solving caper When October Schwartz raises her five dead friends to investigate the cause of Cyril Cooper's death way back in 1783, she expects a dull research-based journey into the lives of Canada's earliest British settlers, the United Empire Loyalists. You'd think our favourite teen detective would have the hang of this solving-mysteries thing by now, but when a ghost pirate appears on the scene, October may be in over her head. The ghost pirate — or someone in a very convincing costume — is thieving key evidence at every turn, beating October to the goods time and again. Worst of all, Valentine's Day is looming, and October's friends seem more concerned about secret admirers than secret conspiracies. As October digs deeper into the mystery, she starts to suspect the pirate may be someone very close to her, just as she uncovers facts regarding her long-missing mom and the meaning behind a cryptic message from a past case. The Dead Kid Detective Agency's third quest is a veritable bouquet of misadventures that weaves the American Revolution, a beyond-chaotic school dance, a historic sea vessel, and a boatload of supernatural shenanigans into one unforgettable madcap adventure.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a much-loved cult classic, that has spawned radio dramas, television, theatre and comic book adaptations across the globe. What do a dead cat, a computer whiz-kid, an Electric Monk who believes the world is pink, quantum mechanics, a Chronologist over two hundred years old, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), and pizza have in common? Apparently not much; until Dirk Gently, self-styled private investigator, sets out to prove the fundamental interconnectedness of all things by solving a mysterious murder, assisting a mysterious professor, unravelling a mysterious mystery, and eating a lot of pizza - not to mention saving the entire human race from extinction along the way (at no extra charge). To find out more, read this book (better still, buy it then read it) - or contact Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. 'A thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic' - Douglas Adams. Continue this surreal series with The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul and the unfinished The Salmon of Doubt.

When Nate sneaks into Ivor Wynne Stadium to check out the midnight games that are keeping his neighborhood up at night, he knew something wasn't right, but he had no idea how strange--and deadly--things would be. He has stumbled upon one of the rituals of the Resurrection Church of the Ancients, and soon his days and nights are dogged by ancient books, giant centipedes, and geometric curses that bring death down upon you in the form of glowing hounds. In this thrilling young adult novel, set in gritty, postindustrial Hamilton, David Neil Lee blends the rich horror of H. P. Lovecraft with the pace of a modern mystery.