Mysteries of Summer
Six mysteries. One season where mystery never takes a break. Six original summer stories by Italian acclaimed authors.
A girl haunted by a ghost who might be herself. A cursed necklace passed from hand to hand. A school trip gone terrifyingly wrong… Each tale is a standalone mystery—spine-chilling, elegant, or surreal—set in the inescapable heat of the Italian summer. A fresh, contemporary collection where adolescence meets the uncanny.
Mysteries of Summer is part of the Puzzle Mysteries series, a highly engaging middle-grade collection (age 10+), created by a remarkable group of acclaimed Italian authors from the Book on a Tree collective. Each stand-alone novel is a brilliantly constructed interactive puzzle that reinvents the classic whodunit with fresh, contemporary twists. With no supernatural shortcuts, every mystery is solved through logic, deduction, and sharp observation. Readers are treated as real detectives, invited to gather clues, untangle deceptions, and solve the case alongside unconventional young protagonists. From gothic Alpine boarding schools and isolated islands to luxury trains and high-pressure contemporary concerts, each book offers a distinctive setting and a fresh angle on the genre. In this series, every clue matters — and every reader becomes the detective.
By the same author or illustrator
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 18: Deadly Trap for Mr. Holmes
A trap in Hyde Park, Holmes behind bars, and one last deadly game staged in Moriarty’s shadow. London, December 1919. A mysterious invitation draws Mila to Hyde Park, where what should have been a clarifying meeting turns into an ambush. Billy Gutsby is kidnapped, Mila barely escapes capture, and within hours the unthinkable happens: Sherlock Holmes is arrested after being…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 17: Crime at Christmas
A snowbound Christmas inn, a dead guest under the same roof, and a theatrical revenge plot hidden beneath holly, cocoa and old English charm. Mayfield, England, 1919. Hoping to give Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin an unforgettable English Christmas, Irene takes Mila, Billy Gutsby and the two old friends to the King’s White Horse, a cosy country inn in the…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 16: The Assassin’s Mask
A glamorous seaside holiday, a corpse dressed as a pirate, and a murder plot hidden behind wealth, romance and theatrical deception. Torquay, 1919. Mila arrives on the Devon coast hoping for a few peaceful days by the sea, but her holiday is quickly overshadowed by death. While Harold Grayling and his dazzling fiancée, Lady Cecilia Hagbury-Winch, prepare a lavish masked…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 15: The Top-hat Man Enigma
A dead princess’s final clue, invisible writing on blank pages, and a race across Europe to stop a chemical weapon from falling into the wrong hands London, 1919. Mila is still reeling from Anastasia’s death in Danzig when Sherlock Holmes begins to study the objects her sister died protecting: a hexagonal key and a note bearing the number 734 090.…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 14: Searching for Anastasia
A funeral in London, a missing Romanov princess, and a mission that reunites three legends for one last impossible rescue. London, 1919. At Dr Watson’s funeral, Irene Adler seeks out Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin after nearly fifty years apart. She needs their help to protect her adopted daughter Mila, whose true identity places her at the heart of one…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 13: Double Ending
A vanished corpse, secret tunnels beneath London, and a counterfeit masterpiece that reveals how differently the trio’s future is already unfolding. Now living in New York under a false name, Irene receives a box from her old life: a few treasured objects, and one of her London notebooks. As she begins rereading it, memory pulls her back to an earlier…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 12: The Ship of Goodbyes
A secret refuge on the Welsh coast, a house full of warnings and hidden sounds, and a farewell that changes the future of the trio forever. Hidden away with her real mother at Farewell’s Head, a lonely manor perched above the sea in North Wales, Irene Adler is told she is finally safe. But the house soon fills with strange…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 11: The Port of Deception
A castle that may not really be for sale, coded lights on the Clyde, and a hidden political conspiracy that turns Irene herself into the centre of the mystery. When Irene Adler begins suffering from severe headaches, the new Dr. Marqueson prescribes an unexpected cure: rowing. But what starts as a lively new routine with Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 10: The Lord of Crime
A string of absurd crimes, a nursery rhyme turned into a deadly script, and the first appearance of a mind brilliant enough to challenge Sherlock. Spring 1872. London seems full of bizarre little crimes with no clear logic behind them: a cobbler found with a bow in his hands after shooting a French chef, a drugged sailor chained beside an…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 9: Murder at the Fox Hunt
A vanished stranger, a corpse hidden in a village well, and a country-house mystery rooted in a deadly lie from the Crimean War. London, February 1872. Irene Adler travels with her father to the Devon countryside, hoping a few quiet days away might lift Leopold’s dark winter mood. Instead, what begins as a country retreat soon turns into a new…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 8: The Sphinx of Hyde Park
A scholar found dead in a sarcophagus, a chain of secrets reaching back to Egypt, and a revenge plot buried for years beneath academic glory. Just days before Christmas 1871, London is gripped by the shocking death of Gideon Hawthorne, director of the British Museum, found suffocated inside an Egyptian sarcophagus. What at first looks like a sensational “curse of…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 7: The Mystery of the King Cobra
A vanished butler, a robbery at the London docks, and a mystery that reaches from Victorian London to the shadows of colonial India. Back in London with her father and still trying to rebuild her life after the tragedy in Paris, Irene Adler hopes for a quieter future. Instead, a sudden shock unsettles the fragile calm of her new home:…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 6: The Shadows of the Seine
A missing cousin, a gang war on the Seine, and a case that drags the trio into the most dangerous corners of Paris. Back in Paris for a brief return to ordinary life, Irene Adler is overjoyed to be reunited with Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin. But their happy reunion is short-lived. When Arsène’s idealistic cousin Fabien d’Andrésy vanishes after…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 5: The Ice Castle
A false naturalist, a white castle in the Alps, and a mystery built on disguises, spies and shifting identities. Still shaken by the discovery of her true origins, Irene Adler travels to Davos, in the Swiss Alps, to meet her real mother, Alexandra Sophie von Klemnitz. But before she can find any real peace, Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin are…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 4: The Cathedral of Fear
A mysterious warning, a torn map, and a secret society hidden beneath Paris. When Irene Adler is forced to leave London for the Norman countryside, she expects only boredom and silence. Instead, a mysterious woman approaches her with a cryptic warning about her mother and entrusts her with a hidden packet containing part of an ancient map. Reunited with Arsène…
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Murder on the Occident Express. Puzzle Mysteries Collection
A rookie inspector, a luxury train, and a murder in the snowy Alps — but the real culprit may already be on another train. Fresh out of the Academy, Inspector Lucius Asgren is sent to a remote Alpine village for his first assignment — and immediately finds himself facing a murder aboard the legendary Occident Express. As the case is…
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Ten Little Tenants. Puzzle Mysteries Collection
The city is slipping into darkness. Blackouts spread. Tremors shake the streets. And in the middle of this growing unease, a murder is committed in Ash Building, a grim apartment block standing alone on the edge of town. The case is assigned to Lucius Asgren, the most brilliant detective on the force — a legend known for solving the impossible.…
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Mystery Hotel. Puzzle Mysteries Collection
December 1961. Now an old man, Nino recounts to his granddaughter Clara an extraordinary night from his childhood, when he was eleven years old and helping his uncle Piero and aunt Ada at the modest Hotel Mimosa in the small spa town of Z***. Once famous during the Belle Époque for its casino and thermal baths, the town has long…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 3: The Mystery of the Scarlet Rose
A coded advertisement, a vanished scientist, and a shadowy enemy who always seems one move ahead. When Irene travels to London to spend the winter holidays with her friends Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin, she expects strolls through Covent Garden and quiet days in the Shackleton Coffee House. Instead, the trio finds themselves entangled in one of their most dangerous…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. Book 2: Last Act at the Opera House
A vanished diva, a theatre full of secrets, and three young detectives who refuse to believe in coincidences. When Irene Adler travels to London to hear the great soprano Ophelia Merridew, she expects nothing more than a dazzling performance. But the glamorous world of the Royal Opera hides rivalries, fears and ambitions — and when a man is murdered and…
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Sherlock, Lupin and Me. The Black Queen’s Trio
It all starts with a seaside town, a mysterious woman in black, and three extraordinary children who will one day become legends. When twelve-year-old Irene Adler arrives in the walled port town of Saint-Malo, she expects a quiet summer. Instead, she meets two boys who will change her life forever: sharp-minded Sherlock Holmes and daring Arsène Lupin. What begins as…
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The Night of the Fireflies
Can the power of first love overcome the barriers of time and space? A poignant story that blends powerful feelings with savage loss. Two alternating female voices until the final truth is revealed. Teresa and Diego grow up together in San Giovanni, a small town in the Italian countryside. They are inseparable—Diego is Teresa’s playmate, her confidant, the shoulder she…
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Count Dawn. The Book of Snow
Choose your future, before your future chooses you. In 2069, the future is already written — and it is controlled by APEX, the corporation that rules humanity through the VIVI: living silicon creatures capable of hijacking technology, emotions, and memory itself. The world survives inside sealed Oases. Clo, a boy who can glimpse fragments of what is yet to come,…
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The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser
A boy turns up at the gates of Nuremberg one spring morning. He is carrying a letter. He doesn’t speak a word of German but he can say his name: Kaspar Hauser. This is the beginning of one of the most mysterious and intriguing new cases of the last two centuries, a case that captivated Germany and beyond, becoming the subject…
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Barriera
In Barriera, everyone’s fate is written in their blood. And you can’t change that. Sixteen-year-old Yasin lives in Barriera, a tough neighbourhood on the outskirts of Turin. He’s caught between his first love and a brother who’s just been released from prison, between who he wants to be and who the world expects him to be. Malik, his brother, is trying…
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The Legendary Treasure of Hell Gate
New York City, 1927. Five kids from East Harlem — nicknamed the Roaches — stumble on a dead man beneath the Hell Gate bridge. Among his belongings, they find a matchbox containing a strange drawing and a key. It’s the start of a treasure hunt leading to the sunken British ship HMS Hussar and its legendary gold cargo. As they…
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We Are Fire
When love burns, nothing is safe, not even the friendships we thought would last forever. A heady, sun-drenched summer in Puglia. A legendary friendship. A girl who changes everything. Charming and reckless, Nicolas is used to getting what he wants. His quieter best friend, Alex, has always followed him. But when they both fall for the same girl, Mia, their loyalty is…
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Escape From Paradise
Genoa, the late 1950s. Lilli is the fifth of seven sisters, but she couldn’t be more different from them. A tomboy who doesn’t like following the rules, she feels suffocated inside the walls of her home. Everything changes the day Lilli meets Ida, a petty thief in the service of a mysterious woman named Salomè, and her gang of Strays. For…
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My Cat Saw The Killer
When Carla returns home one afternoon, her cat Cucco is acting strange. His paws are wet. He leaves bloody footprints. And just as Carla begins to ask questions, two mysterious officers burst into her home and take them both away. The authorities claim Cucco witnessed a murder. Now, Carla is caught in the middle of a high-tech investigation that uses…
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The You
Blu lives in a town on the shores of an Alpine lake. Nothing special ever happens there. Until one summer day, everything changes. A fisherman dies under mysterious circumstances. A woman hears her dead husband’s voice. Blu hears what sounds like her cousin’s voice, but it can’t be… he lives miles away and Blu’s phone is off… That’s how Blu meets Luka,…
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Celeste’s War
Autumn 1944. In the woods of the Langhe, twelve-year-old Celeste and his little sister Flora, five, are playing Training, a survival game to prepare for the arrival of the enemy – and the enemy, they have always been taught, are the rebels who have gone up into the hills: the partisans. But nothing can prepare them for what they find…
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Uncle Cringe
Everyone has an Uncle Cringe. But Neve’s is the worst one of all. And this will be the most embarrassing trip of her whole life. Neve is certain of one thing in life: every family has an Uncle Cringe. And unfortunately, hers is the cringiest of all. Always over the top with unlikely jokes, embarrassing dancing and an obsession with…
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The Pocket Watch Gang
Four friends with two things in common: three dollars and a burning desire to see the world. For four friends who live on one of the endless Louisiana bayous in early 1900s America, the 1,000-page Walker & Dawn Catalogue is the gateway to a world of hopes. So, when they find three silver dollars, they order an automatic revolver. But…
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Red Stars
Leningrad, 1941. Twins Viktor and Nadya are twelve years old when Hitler’s Germany declares war on the Soviet Union. All the children in the city are loaded onto special trains that take them to safety from the enemy advance, but due to a mistake Viktor and Nadya end up on different trains and lose track of each other. While Nadya…
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The Houses of the Dead Have No Stairs
A bold, gripping novel about memory, grief, and the invisible line between the living and the lost. Since the fire that destroyed part of her grandmother’s house, nothing in Dodo’s life has felt right. No one talks about what really happened that night – or what Dodo saw. Her grandmother barely speaks, and the silence around the past grows heavier…
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Read Again Nanà
Magnificent illustrations accompany this intense story about the power of words with delicate strokes, which tells even the youngest children how each of us can always make a difference. There is a small village at the top of the mountains, far from everything, living in peace and harmony with nature. The only contact with the world is the newspapers, which…
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Cassandra Apollinaire’s Prodigious Soul-Capturing Machine
Three siblings, a race against time among the streets of Paris, coded messages, ancient daguerreotypes, centuries-old secret circles and a disturbing mystery: can photographic film preserve a soul? France, 1971. It’s the 13th of October when a postman rings the Sélavy family’s door, causing all hell to break loose: the delivery is for Louis, René’s twin, who died in an…
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The Greatest
She is just a girl now, but she will become a martial artist, the queen of the Chinese sea, the Greatest pirate who ever lived Canton, 1770. Shi Yu is a six-year-old orphan who works for the quick-tempered innkeeper Bai Bai. At the inn, Yu meets Li Peng, a master in the martial arts of the Air and Water wushu.…
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Ghost Agency – Vol.4: Even Ghosts Quiver
Ghosts are disappearing – and not in the usual “ooooh, I’m moving on” kind of way. One minute they’re moaning in basements or rattling chains in attics… and the next, poof – gone. When Will Moogley receives a mysterious call and finds only a puddle of strange bluish slime where a ghost should be, he knows something’s not right. All…
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Ghost Agency – Vol.3: The Skyscraper Ghost
Something spooky is going on at the Empire State Building. Tourists are fainting, elevators are levitating on their own, and a terrifying ghost has taken up (illegal) residence in the city’s most iconic skyscraper. The problem? He doesn’t have a contract. And worse—he refuses to leave. Will Moogley, young head of the world’s worst-run ghost temp agency, is called in…
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Ghost Agency – Vol.2: A Fearfully Frightening Family!
Jerrold was supposed to enjoy his peaceful retirement – haunting a quiet, creaky old house in Brooklyn. But his afterlife is turned upside down when a rowdy, clueless human family moves in, completely ignoring the fact that the place is already occupied. They blare music, hang curtains, and worst of all… they’re not even a little bit scared of him.…
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Ghost Agency – Vol.1: Good Job, Will Moogley!
Will Moogley, the young and reluctant heir to the failing Ghost Agency, is struggling to keep the ghost-placement business afloat. His agency provides ghosts for hauntings, but with few clients and little money, things look bleak. An unexpected opportunity arises when a luxury hotel chain, Scary Inn, announces plans to renovate an old castle into a haunted hotel for wealthy…
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The Last Hunter
I am the last hunter and you are the last of your kind. The noise of our fight will make the stars fall from the sky. Florida, 10,000 years ago. The tribe has gone far South in search of the last mastodons, creatures that are very precious for their survival but which are disappearing perhaps due to the violence of…
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The Crimson City Heist
A federal sheriff and a fierce, unpredictable girl who claims to be his half-sister arrive in Crimson City – a dusty, forgotten outpost where nothing ever happens, and nobody ever comes from the south. Their presence disrupts the fragile balance of the town and upends the quiet life of Roy Wilson, the orphan boy adopted by the stationmaster. The strangers…
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Maydala Express
An unforgettable journey towards the last, unknown destination Finally, ten years old and red-haired, lives in Grey City’s immense railway station and works for a company that controls all the trains around the world, obeying wicked Mr Mortimer’s orders. Every day she dreams of escaping… One day she finds a piece of crumpled paper in her pocket, with strange lettering…
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The Lost Flower of the Shaman of K
Peru, 1986. Laila, the daughter of a Finnish diplomat, has spent her childhood moving across Latin America. But her life takes a devastating turn when she is diagnosed with an illness and sent to a hospital in Lima. There, she meets El Rato, the cheekiest scamp of a boy Laila has ever met, who has lived in the hospital all…
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The Fear of the Lion
No one is free from fear, not even the ferocious mountain lion! In fairy tales, everyone cheers for the three little pigs… But in reality, every ecosystem also needs its “big bad” wolf to survive. Predators are fundamental for the natural world where everything pivots between those that run to feed themselves and those that run away to save their…
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Maud West, Lady Detective vol.1 – A Matryoshka of Mysteries
She’s a mistress of disguise with the acumen of Miss Marple, the resourcefulness of Enola Holmes and a helper who always gets into trouble. It’s Maud West, the first real lady detective who ever lived. London, October 1920. Maud West and her young assistant Max Finch have just solved an intricate investigation and are preparing to celebrate with a nice…
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Maud West, Lady Detective vol.3 – A Labyrinth of Mirrors
She’s a mistress of disguise with the acumen of Miss Marple, the resourcefulness of Enola Holmes and a helper who always gets into trouble. It’s Maud West, the first real lady detective who ever lived. Somewhere in England, 1920. What are Maggie and Max Finch doing in a cottage in the middle of the forest? And why are they keeping…
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Maud West, Lady Detective vol.2 – A Cathedral of Cobwebs
She’s a mistress of disguise with the acumen of Miss Marple, the resourcefulness of Enola Holmes and a helper who always gets into trouble. It’s Maud West, the first real lady detective who ever lived. Boasting his new cap, Finch invites Maggie to the cinema. But romantic gestures are not her thing… better to dive into Maud West’s new assignment.…
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The Son of the Sea – Da Mar 1
For many years, nothing important happened in the house. Then, the barbarians arrived. At fourteen, Pietro is just a pig keeper in a quiet Roman province – until the shadow of Attila’s barbarian horde reaches his doorstep. Thrust into the chaos of war, he’s forced to grow up fast: enlisting as a legionary, crossing paths with nobles, forging a deep…
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The Wind Thief – Da Mar 2
For many years, nothing important happened in the house. Then, Angela fished a body out of the canal. Venice, Early Middle Ages. When her once-powerful family falls into disgrace, Angela – the bold daughter of a merchant – disguises herself as a boy and boards a ship bound for Alexandria. Her mission: stop her father’s enemies and restore her family’s…
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The Mysteries of Mercurio 4 – Giotto: Rise Up to the Stars
An old man who lives in the top of a tower in the heart of Florence challenges three friends to a dangerous mission: to discover and solve the hidden mysteries of the art world! ‘Where’s Mercurio got to?’ wonder Nina, Jamal and Lorenzo, worried. They’re outside the Scrovegni Chapel, wearing leggings and ankle boots. The magical blackbird, who has just…
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Owls Family
From the scientist who studied tawny owls in the Finnish woods with a research team, a fascinating educational book on these adorable nocturnal birds of prey. With its funny expression and soft plumage, the tawny owl is an animal that inspires tenderness. In reality, it is a fearsome predator! But it is also a faithful companion (there are almost no…
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TWENTY-FOUR. TimeLoop
On Friday the 19th of May, at 11.56 a.m. in a secondary school in Bologna, a bomb goes off. It’s the worst terrorist attack in Italy’s history, inflicting an incurable wound on the heart of the city. The consequences are tragic. But… the attack never happened and this story actually begins on Thursday the 18th of May at 11.56 a.m.,…
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Twenty-Four. Timeline
On Friday the 19th of May, at 11.56 a.m. in a secondary school in Bologna, a bomb goes off. It’s the worst terrorist attack in Italy’s history, inflicting an incurable wound on the heart of the city. The consequences are tragic. But… the attack never happened and this story actually begins on Thursday the 18th of May at 11.56 a.m.,…
