Where Are All the Black Boys? A 2017 Assessment and Comparison

Recently I had a chance to see an upcoming jacket for a 2018 middle grade novel. Check it out:

If the name “Varian Johnson” is ringing a bell, it may be because of this cover a couple years ago:

His 2018 book, The Parker Inheritance, is billed as having distinct similarities to The Westing Game (and if your mouth suddenly started to salivate after hearing that, I can’t even blame you). The Great Greene Heist, of course, is more in the vein of Ocean’s 11.  And what do these two books have in...