Dial M for Morna

Book excerpt: As the Dead Kid Detective Agency embarks on its second (mis)adventure, October Schwartz and her five deadest friends are back, turning over metaphoric rocks and finding the centipedes underneath. In this latest volume, set against a backdrop of yuletide pandemonium, they discover dark supernatural forces at work in Sticksville and sleuth their way through a mystery involving a blizzard of suffragettes, ice skating disasters, anti-Asian sentiment, and the Titanic. Although the holiday season has descended upon the town like an eggnog rainstorm, October has no time for candy canes or mistletoe. She’s busy dealing with an oddly pleasant new history teacher, her two living friends’ new roles as high school radio DJs, and mysteries to be solved before the year end. October and her ghost friends are hot on the trail of those responsible for Morna MacIsaac’s death in 1914—or as hot as one can be on a 100-year-old trail—when Yumi becomes the target of a sinister harassment campaign at school. Solving dual concurrent mysteries at once won’t be easy, but the intrepid heroine in black eyeliner loves a challenge.