Together with her best friend and reluctant sidekick, Meat, Herculeah Jones meets a famous mystery author, Mathias King, aka the Murder King. King's novels mirror gruesome, real-life murders, particularly A Slash of Life, which is about an unsolved local stabbing. Some people believe Mathias King isn't making up the details, could he actually be responsible for the crime? Herculeah's sure she can find out. But Meat seems too busy with his new girlfriend to give Herculeah much of a hand. Can Herculeah solve this mystery on her own, or will Meat's dating be this sleuth's downfall?
At the eerie Hunt mansion, Herculeah Jones has been reading aloud to Lionus Hunt, an elderly stroke victim who can only communicate by blinking his eyes (once for yes, twice for no). Mr. Hunt seems to be trying to tell Herculeah something, but his gruff nurse won't allow her to ask any questions. What is Mr. Hunt trying to say? Is it related to a murder that took place in the mansion's black tower years ago? And who is the creepy old lady who lives in the mansion? Herculeah's friend Meat thinks she may be asking for trouble, but Herculeah Jones won't quit until she gets to the bottom of this mystery.
When Herculeah discovers a mysterious letter inside the lining of a secondhand coat, she suspects it's a desperate cry for help. If so, what happened to the person who wrote it? Herculeah thinks she knows the answer. What she doesn't know is that someone is watching her-someone who will do anything to keep her quiet.
When Herculeah Jones's best friend, Meat, decides to take a comedy class, he just expects to get a few laughs. But then he discovers a dead body in the bathroom, and realizes that there's nothing funny about murder. Things can't get any worse-until the body disappears! Meat needs Herculeah's help to uncover the clues, but she's busy investigating a case of her own . . . one that might just change Meat's life forever!
Herculeah Jones finds herself in the middle of another mystery when her best friend Meat barely escapes a hitman's bullet. Someone must have mistaken Meat for someone else. But who. Herculeah is determined to solve the mystery, before the assassin comes after her.
Madame Rosa, the eccentric local fortune teller, has been murdered, and the only witness is her parrot,Tarot. But he's not talking. Herculeah Jones thinks she knows who the killer is, but she's not the only one. . . . Someone else knows-someone who wants to make sure Herculeah won't be around to see the future.
Safety is downriver-but first there's trouble ahead.
As soon as Dewey Martin sees the Indian creeping toward the cabin-and toward his unsuspecting grandmother-he knows what to do: knock him down and take off before the rest of the raiding party arrives. The only means of escape is Dewey's homemade raft, and lying in its path are rapids, wolves, Indians, and forty miles of uncharted river. Can a boy who's never manned an oar and an old frontierswoman be the first to make it down Trouble River?
Tom hates having to spend the summer on a farm . . . until he discovers the midnight fox.
No one asked Tom how he felt about spending two months on his Aunt Millie's farm. For a city boy, the farm holds countless terrors-stampeding baby lambs, boy-chasing chickens, and worst of all, loneliness. But everything changes when Tom sees the midnight fox. He can spend hours watching the graceful black fox in the woods. And when her life-and that of her cub-is in danger, Tom knows exactly what he must do.
All summer Sara Godfrey has fretted over herself, her impossible body, her terrible new haircut. One moment she's elated, the next, she's in tears. And she can't figure out why. Maybe her wildly changing moods are tied to the sudden and unaccountable appearance of the swans, which hold the rapt attention of Charlie, Sara's mentally handicapped brother, who she loves far more than herself these days. In fact, it will be the sudden disappearance of Charlie that will compel Sara to abandon her own small, annoying miseries, and lose herself in searching for him. In her anguish, Sara turns to Joe Melby, whom she has long despised, and together they search through the dense woods and rough fields to find him. Sara knows that she will never be the same again.
When Junior brings home the classroom hamster, Scooty, he decides to build the best hamster tunnel ever. But when Scooty goes missing, all evidence points to Mud. In the meantime, Mad Mary is missing, too-although Maggie and Ralphie find her bag and cane near the highway. Have Scooty and Mad Mary been kidnapped-or worse? With a mystery around every bend, it's going to be anything but an ordinary weekend with the Blossoms!
Junior Blossom has finally created the ultimate invention--the Green Phantom. It's big, black, Day-Glo green, and it's beautiful! All it needs is the secret ingredient.
The whole family makes a promise to ensure that Junior's invention will be a success, a Blossom promise that can never be broken.
Family and friends gather to launch the Green Phantom, but where are Pap and his dog, Mud? They wouldn't break a Blossom promise unless they were in serious trouble....
From the Trade Paperback edition.
For the Blossom family it's the best day of their lives -- and the worst. Maggie, out west with her mother, is about to become the newest Blossom on the rodeo circuit. And now that the rain has finally stopped, Junior can at last visit his friend Mad Mary in her cave in the woods.
These two weeks of rain have been like an answer to a prayer for Vern and his friend Michael. Together they planned and built a perfect raft, and now, with everyone out watching the waters rise over the banks of the Snake River, they're sure their great voyage downstream will be witnessed with cheers.
Vern's grandfather, Pap, is watching the river and dreaming about his old days as a rodeo star. Suddenly he hears screams from the river and runs to the rescue. What will Pap find? How will the Blossom family pull together?
