by Margi Preus
First published 2020
Francie wakes up in her aunts' cabin on Enchantment Lake knowing her life will never be the same. She holds a small engraved silver box that contains cryptic clues about her missing mother's whereabouts. The mystery pulls Francie and her best friends Raven and Jay from an abandoned Arizona ranch to a plant collector's conservatory to a shadowy museum closer to home. At the center lies a crime against the North Woods itself. Thieves steal lady's slippers, strip birch bark, harvest moss, and cut down saplings for profit. But Francie faces something far worse than ordinary plant theft. Each clue reveals she owns something so rare and valuable that people will kill for it. Her search leads into the frozen North Woods during winter, where she discovers she has become the hunted as well as the hunter. This final Enchantment Lake mystery forces Francie to learn deadly lessons about her true identity.
Genres: adventure, mystery, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, mystery, search
Setting: Arizona, Enchantment Lake, North Woods
Period: Winter
224 pages · Kindle Edition · Univ Of Minnesota Press