With school over, Greg visiting relatives, and Betts on vacation with her family, it's looking like it will be a quiet summer for Shelby Belgarden. Until, that is, she finds out that Betts and her family have returned home suddenly, and Betts's mom faces criminal charges in the theft of a compute...
At last, Shelby Belgarden has put her crime-solving behind her and has returned to the life of an ordinary teenager. Now 16, she has taken her first job: working at a new local restaurant called The Steak Place. But when one of her co-workers -- a waitress named Nadine -- goes missing, Shelby sus...
“…Never let someone else decide how you’re going to act…” say the book In Too Deep by Valerie Sherrard. The lead to this creation of this book is due to the great success Valerie got from the very first book called Out of the Ashes that was nominated for the 2003 Red Maple Awards. In Too Deep is ...
An unexpected delivery from the florist points to a secret admirer for Shelby Belgarden, but when an ominous phone call and a disturbing email follow, the teenaged sleuth and her family realize that the dangerous obsession of a stalker lies behind them. While the messages become increasingly sini...
"You know how it is when you get a feeling that something big is going to happen? Well, it wasn't like that for me. In fact, that Thursday started out like any other day." With these words, Sarah Gilmore begins the remarkable story of what happened when she and her mother, Maggie, suddenly found...
Shelby Belgarden isn't exactly thrilled when people start thinking Greg is her boyfriend. After all, she's more interested in the athletic Nick Jarvis. But one day Greg suddenly becomes more interesting to Shelby -- though for all the wrong reasons: Shelby begins to suspect that Greg is responsib...
I did know that it had to do with Annie’s mother, and our search for her. So I did what I usually do when I get that kind of feeling: I got out my notes and read through them, looking for something that might jump out at me. I even read them out of order, which sometimes helps. Nothing. I set the...
I started reading the book Mr. Taylor had lent me, and before long I was so immersed in it that I almost forgot about my problems. There was a lot of stuff about safety issues and how a large number of fires were started accidentally because of kids fooling around with matches or lighters. I skip...
It was Mrs. Thompson who answered the door when I got to Betts’s place, so I guess she was on her way home when she drove past me. The car was nowhere in sight, though, so I guessed she’d parked in the garage, even though it was summer. Her surprised expression told me she hadn’t been expecting t...
Even though I have plenty of proof that what’s happening is real, my first thought is: “He’s just messing with me.” Shock, I guess. Refusal to believe something terrible is true. Whatever it is, it doesn’t last long. “Turn around,” he says. His voice is low and menacing. “Devlin, please,” I stamm...
Until earlier today, that is. I’d just dropped off resumes at a few stores in the Halifax Shopping Centre. Summer’s coming soon and I’ll be sixteen in July, so I’m looking forward to getting my first real job. So, anyway, I was making the rounds in the food court on the upper level when I saw Car...
I’d seen her bawling enough times through the years that I’d become immune to it by then. My main concern was that she might waste a bunch of my time with some stupid story about the latest fight between her and her boyfriend, Conor Sweeney. The main thing to remember in that kind of situation is...
Bits of them flashed briefly, freeze frames of fear, before receding into a haze of confusion. I guess I should have been grateful they didn’t stay with me, except I was left with the disquieting feeling that there may have been a clue there, something buried in my subconscious, that could have p...
“How could they do this to you?” she almost sobbed. She told us that the few hours we’d been gone had seemed like days and that she’d been losing her mind with worry. “Now, now, there’s nothing to worry about, dear,” Dad said, putting his arms around the two of us. “Shelby has promised me that sh...