by Jeff Strand
First published 2025
Twelve-year-old Maggie spots mysterious flyers around Farlow advertising a summer scavenger hunt with a massive cash prize. She assembles her team and shows up on game day, where a peculiar man explains the rules. The first challenge seems laughably simple: find an egg. Maggie and her friends breeze through the early rounds. Then the tasks grow harder. The hunt organizer demands they break into their school after hours to steal Mr. Kramer's coffee mug. One teammate refuses and quits, but the others complete the theft. Next comes grave robbing at the local cemetery for a human bone. The children realize the game has turned sinister, but they press on. When the final challenge arrives, requiring them to deliver an actual human head, the remaining players want out. They discover they cannot simply walk away from this competition. The third book in Jeff Strand's Eek! series traps young readers alongside Maggie as innocent fun transforms into genuine terror.
Genres: adventure, suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, innocent-fun-turns-sinister
Setting: Farlow
192 pages · Paperback · Sourcebooks Young Readers
Content warnings: child-death, graphic-violence, murder