Gordon McAlpine

Mystery Box: A Novel About the Creators of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Gordon McAlpine

Were Franklin Dixon and Carolyn Keene indeed the mysterious authors of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books? Or just made-up names? In Mystery Box Gordon McAlpine masterfully invents the world as it might have been if Frank and Carol had met among the glittering expatriates in 1920s Paris. Frank is a private detective, hunting not only for missing heiresses and stolen jewels but also for answers to his painful past. Carolyn, meanwhile, works for a fashion magazine, yearning to know both how to write for real and how to forgive a world full of betrayal and disillusionment. With the friendship, wit, and wisdom of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein, Frank and Carolyn find each other and the truths contained in their soon-to-be-written fictions. Mystery Box guides readers through layers on layers of mystery, history, and romance. Finally teenagers can enjoy a favorite fictional world reimagined and reinvented.