An acquiring editor once asked me to describe The Caden Chronicles in one sentence.

I said, “A kid goes to haunted places, discovers they’re not really haunted, and nearly gets killed anyway.”

“So it’s a mystery series?”

“It’s a really bad vacation.”

Zonderkidz offered me a contract. (Turns out publishers love bad vacations. Go figure.)

MEET NICK CADEN

Nick is thirteen years old, convinced he’s smarter than every adult in the room, and absolutely certain that monsters, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night have a perfectly logical explanation. He investigates the myths — Bigfoot sightings, werewolf legends, ghost pirates — and debunks them, one dangerous near-death experience at a time.

The thing is, the danger is always real. The supernatural explanation is usually wrong. And the truth is almost always stranger and scarier than the myth.

Dead Man’s Hand kicks off the series at Deadwood, South Dakota — Boot Hill, Wild Bill Hickok’s grave, and a murder that nobody can explain. Nick shows up looking for a story. He finds a whole lot more than he bargained for.

THE SERIES:
– Dead Man’s Hand — a ghost town in Deadwood, SD
– Skull Creek Stakeout — vampire legends and very real trouble in Transylvania county, North Carolina
– Dead Low Tide — because a swamp outside Savanah, Georgia makes everything scarier at Halloween
– Phantom Gunslinger — the Old West never really died — it simply lives to haunt us
– Mystery of the Eyewitness Ghost — when a ghost is the only witness to a murder who can you trust?
– Rumor of a Werewolf — Yes, there are monsters — and they’re not who we think

WHO READS THE CADEN CHRONICLES?

Officially: kids ages 9–14, middle grade, adventure/mystery with a faith thread woven through.

Unofficially: any adult who ever stayed up past midnight with a flashlight under the covers finishing a book they were supposed to put down an hour ago.