The Secret Room

Shawna and Thea are working together on a math project for their eighth-grade class. But the numbers don't add up, and they make a startling discovery—the secret room in the basement of Thea's house, an old Vermont inn. The code on the walls makes the girls—and everyone in town—wonder why there was a secret room. Was it part of the Underground Railroad, or perhaps something less, well, heroic? Discovering the truth is harder than they would have thought, especially when the truth is not what you want to hear. This new novel is written for young adults age 10 and up. But readers of every age will enjoy this engrossing tale American history, friendship, family ties, nature, community. These are some of the themes that Beth Kanell explores in this beautifully written and ever-so-timely novel. The Secret Room is at once a superb, young-adult suspense story, and one of the best, and most realistic, literary mystery novels I've ever read. At its heart are two wonderful young friends and not-so-amateur detectives, Thea and Shawna. What they learn about themselves, their community, and their state and country, past and present, will astonish and delight you. The Secret Room is a masterwork in which every sentence is lovingly crafted and written straight from the heart. --Howard Frank Mosher, novelist, author of Disappearances; Where the Rivers Flow North; A Stranger in the Kingdom; Walking to Gatlinburg; and more.