On his way to baseball practice, Zeke lines up for Vancouver's newest thrill ride: Death Drop, an elevator that falls faster than gravity.The theme of the ride is based on the story of Persephone, who tumbled into the underworld. Zeke tumbles into a frightening situation himself after he discovers a little girl who is lost. He takes her to the Death Drop manager's office. But later, when he tries to find out what happened with her, the ride's staff say they never s...

Joe and his friend Skip are enjoying the thrill of the Big Dip, a famous rollercoaster, until they learn the old man in front of them has been shot.The old man mutters with his dying breath something about getting a Margaret Rose to the police. Joe leaves the crime scene to get on with his life. But someone is desperate for the Margaret Rose and thinks Joe has it. When his sister is kidnapped, Joe is in a race against time to solve the puzzle.This short nov...

Piano-playing Nate loves to rock out Beethoven in a style characterized more by enthusiasm than training. Nate is gazing up at Vancouver's newest luxury building, the Keynote, when a thief in a Beethoven costume mugs him and two other victims. But the day turns up-tempo when the Keynote's owner, Mike Dante, offers Nate a gig playing piano in the courtyard. This is big-time opportunity knocking for a self-taught musician.Nate thinks there's no better way to thank his real-estate-tyc...

Clay would much rather work as a lifeguard at the beach than at Safari Splash, the new water park in town.Clay is certain the summer will drag along, despite his position at the Boa, the park's fastest slide. The summer job starts to get interesting when he learns that someone has been wandering the park in a lynx costume, scaring the staff. When forty thousand dollars is stolen from the till, and his friends are under suspicion for the theft, boring is starting to...

Medusa's Scream is a thrill ride that hurtles a train through an out-of-service gold mine in the Fraser Valley.Chase can't believe his luck when he lands a summer job in the food truck outside the ride's entrance. But then he notices strange things happening at the old mine. Chase starts to piece things together, and soon his life is threatened by a villain even scarier than the snake-headed Medusa of myth.This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading le...

Zack Freedman has complete control and feels a sense of calm on the high wire.If only Zack could say the same about the rest of his life. His fellow youth circus performer and roommate, Cubby, hates him, and his aunt dumps a yappy, excitable dog on him. When a necklace is stolen during a circus performance and the victim of the theft threatens to shut down the circus, Zack is desperate to solve the mystery so he can keep his place on the wire.This short nov...

It's all aboard! for mystery when Dinah Galloway takes the cross-country train from Vancouver to Toronto, to appear on a TV talent show. But will she make it-or be permanently derailed? Along with her sister Madge, and her fellow junior musicians, tree fanatic Pantelli Audia and history buff Talbot St. John, Dinah is shadowed by someone who wants to get hold of an $80,000 treasure left by her late dad. But what is the treasure? The redheaded, singing sleuth realizes that the secret dwells ...

After a hang glider crashes into the pool of the house where Dinah and Madge are house-sitting, the hapless pilot creates more than a splash of suspicion in Dinah’s mind. Why does this itchy intruder make off with Dinah’s inflatable turtle? Why is someone trying to drive their cat-mad neighbor away? And what is the connection with the balding stranger seen lurking behind the hedge? And when Madge’s boyfriend starts a campaign to save the endangered spotted owl, it seems that a crooked poli...

Confronting a prowler in the backyard, Dinah is determined to find out why someone has taken an interest in her older sister and herself. Who is the buck-tooth burglar? Why are the Rinaldi's tomatoes always involved? And what is the connection between Madge's boyfriend and GASP, a group of well-intentioned anti-smoking activists? When it becomes apparent that Wellman Talent, the modeling agency Madge works for, is making deals with an unscrupulous tobacco company, and that the spy is out t...

Amateur detective and singing sensation Dinah Galloway has enough on her plate without having to worry about being pursued by a vengeful stalker. The red-headed twelve-year-old is in the running to sing in commercials promoting beautiful British Columbia. To clinch the job, Dinah has to get fit at a wellness retreat on Salt Spring Island. Veggies? Exercise? Yech! Grudgingly, though, Dinah admits that her lifestyle could be a little healthier. Off to Salt Spring she goes, along with the two...

The last thing Chaz wants is to spend his summer working on his father’s Eye, a Ferris wheel with glass-bottomed gondolas set up to view scenic North Vancouver.For one thing, Chaz would prefer to pursue his own passion: dance in the style of the late, great Gene Kelly. More importantly, Chaz suffers from vertigo, and even the thought of the Eye makes him want to lose his lunch. But when a crowd of angry protestors and a mysterious vandal threaten his father’s dream...

Conor loves to climb.So when the crusty old manager of a thrill ride based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" challenges Conor to scale the ride in the dark of night and hide a package at the top, he foolishly accepts. But it isn't long before he realizes that he is now involved in something far more dangerous. What is in the package, and what does it have to do with Edgar Allan Poe? And why is the town bully so terrified of the old man? The more Conor...