History Mysteries

by Mary Martinez

Zeke Adams has mixed feelings about visiting his nana for the summer. On the one hand, he’ll get to see her and his two younger cousins, Nick and Bart, but then they’ll be stuck all summer in the small coastal town of Cliffdale, California—a place they all believe will be boring. When the boys arrive, they ask Nana if they can ride their skateboards around town. Nana agrees as long as they stay away from the house next door. She explains that fifty years ago the owner, Albert Smith, arrived out of nowhere and bought the house, then disappeared just as mysteriously. Despite Nana’s instructions to stay away from the house, Bart convinces his cousins it’s haunted, and they can’t resist exploring. They are determined to use their special gifts to discover what happened to Albert Smith….and while they are busy discovering, they find they have a lot in common with the people in Cliffdale.

188 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 29, 2016

About the author

Mary lives in Magna, a little town west of Salt Lake City, Utah. Together with her husband, she has six grown children, and six wonderful grandsons and five beautiful granddaughters. She loves to spend time with family and friends--she includes good books as friends!

Mary writes mostly romantic suspense, romance, women's fiction, and she has just begun to dabble in young adult mystery. During her writing career she has been a conference coordinator, workshop presenter, and chapter president for the Utah Chapter of Romance Writers of America. In 2007 she was presented with the Utah RWA service award in acknowledgment and appreciation for outstanding service.

Mary and her husband love to travel, especially to the Caribbean for relaxing, and Italy for the wine. And most recently she discovered she was Irish and Scottish, of course they had to visit Ireland and Scotland. Mary fell in love with both, but the green hills of Ireland felt like home. With the experience from the exotic places she has visited, she is able to fill her books with colorful descriptions of cities, painting a colorful backdrop for her characters.

They are avid concert ‘Ho’s’! Yes, they pretty much want to do them all. They love outdoor amphitheaters the best and attend as many during the warmer months as possible.

Mary and her husband are also enthusiastic college football fans. They have season tickets to the UTES, University of Utah Football and they tailgate every game. They love tailgating so much, that they were married at a tailgating in 1999.
GO UTES!

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

History Mysteries

I really enjoyed reading about Sadie and her grandsons. I think I would be a nervous wreck having them for the summer.They were so inquisitive to what was going on in Sadie’s town.Please read Mary Martinez books.My mom and I are devouring them.

[Judy Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read many books for preteens, but I think this book would be a good story for any ten/eleven or even twelve year old boy or girl depending on their reading level.

[Donna K · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. It never popped off the pages for me. The plot was okay. The characters unfortunately never reached out to grab me. I could picture some but not others. If you need a book to read this is an okay book but I would not put it at the top of my reccomend book. With this setting and some scenes I think this book had great potential. I will have to try another book by this author to see if we are just not an author reader fit or if others are better
I read this book for Reading Alley in exchange for a view.

[Cyndy Gleave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a bit different genre(youth) for Mary, and she nailed it! Her characters are so real and well written (despite the extras) . The mystery and story line are intriguing without being cumbersome for young readers. The 'super powers' add to the fun, and I find myself wanting to hear more from Nick, Zeke and Bart.