A Message to Parents, Grandparents, Teachers, and Anyone Else Who Loves a Kid Who Loves a Good Mystery Hi. Nick Caden. Teen reporter, amateur detective, and dedicated skeptic. My parents dragged me to a Wild West ghost town for vacation. No cell signal. An outhouse. And a brochure that cheerfully advertised gold panning — pan rentals extra. I was not impressed. Then I watched a man get shot in a hayloft. Real gun. Real body. Then — gone. No body. No evidence. No one believed me. Not the marshal. Not the deputy. Not my parents. Here's what I know: everybody gets things wrong. Parents. Marshals. Teachers. Me — but let's not talk about that. So I did what I always do. I investigated. I verified. I pushed until I found the truth myself. Because the truth is always out there. You just have to care enough to go find it. Oh — and there was this girl. Annie. The marshal's niece. Called herself Annie Oakley. Showed up everywhere before I even knew I needed her there. Argued with me constantly. Turned out to be the most loyal, infuriating, and surprisingly brave person in all of Deadwood Canyon. She was a brush fire in a dry wind. Your child is going to stay up past bedtime reading this. They're going to root for the kid nobody believes. They're going to learn — without anyone lecturing them about it — that the truth is worth chasing, that kindness shows up in unexpected places, and that a good ending feels even better when it's been earned. Ghosts? Outlaws? A murder nobody believed happened? I've already moved on to my next case — investigating the disappearance of a man named Jesus Christ. Apparently he went missing from his grave, and it's kind of a big deal. Mom is not pleased about the detour through Dallas to visit Southwestern cemetery. Seminary. Whatever. Dead Man's Hand. Book 1 in the Caden Chronicles. Spooky but not scary. Funny but not foolish. Satisfying in all the right ways. Eddie is an award-winning author known for crafting suspenseful mysteries and humorous adventures that captivate readers, young and old. Through the ministry, Send Jesus to Prisons , his books are read by countless inmates and used to introduce others to Christ.
