“Comic, creepy, calamitous, and . . . completely satisfying.”—Claudia Mills, author of The Lost Language and Zero Tolerance

With his bar mitzvah on the horizon, thirteen-year-old Eddie needs to do a community service project, and he needs to start yesterday. Against his better judgment, he ends up with a volunteering gig at Silver Brook Pavilion retirement home, where the elderly residents call him “Eddie Whatever” so they won’t have to remember his last name. Eddie expects his time at Silver Brook to drag, but at least his friend (and secret crush) Tessa will be there to keep him company—if he can manage to avoid embarrassing himself in front of her.

Soon, though, the seniors upend all Eddie’s assumptions. Their lives are full of excitement, with a dramatic courtship unfolding, long-hidden secrets emerging, rumors of a vengeful ghost running rampant, and a thief on the loose.

When suspicion for the thefts falls on Eddie, he has to team up with the seniors—and Tessa—to clear his name and solve the mysteries of Silver Brook.

The Secret of Laurel Oaks