THE BODY ON THE BEACH

Teen sleuth Kat Dylan returns to solve another mystery in Wieland’s middle-grade novel.

Kat Dylan and her younger brother, Alec, live in Crabtree, Michigan, a town on Lake Michigan, with Nick Hawkins, who is their grandfather and the town’s police chief. The story begins with a text from Gabby, a classmate of Kat’s; though they don’t run in the same circles, Gabby wants to meet. One clandestine meeting leads to another (Gabby asks Kat some cryptic questions about police interrogations that have something to do with a boy she met), and, just like that, Kat, Alec, and Kat’s classmate, Tommy (who Kat calls her “not-boyfriend”) are on the case, determined to solve a mystery. This situation is more dangerous than the one they faced in the previous installment of the series: the trio soon finds Gabby’s dead body on the beach. Parallel narratives follow in which Kat and her friends mobilize to solve Gabby’s death while Grandpa Nick and his law enforcement officers try to do the same. The case expands to include the kidnapping of the son of a Chicago billionaire and a couple of trips to (and one wild foot chase in) Chicago as Kat and her confederates mostly stay one step ahead of everyone else. Kat is everything readers might want in a young hero: She’s whip-smart, loyal to her friends and brother, and has a wicked sense of humor (“Tom moved. Did he need a doctor? I wanted him healthy before I beat the crap out of him”). Alec, too, comes into his own as a character here; he’s fully Kat’s partner and much more than just her pesky younger sibling. Together, they lead a story boasting some surprising twists and turns and exciting, scary moments. As in the first book in the series, it’s clear that Kat and Tommy are destined to be together, and it appears there will be more time for that to happen in future series entries, which readers will eagerly await.

A delightful and surprising mystery that bodes well for further installments.