The Thief at Keswick Inn

Bailey Fish Adventures #3

by Linda Salisbury, Christopher A. Grotke (Illustrator)

Bailey Fish, 11, is happy when the Keswick family plans to move into a once-elegant country home near where she and her grandmother. Sugar, live in Virginia. The adopted, homeschooled brothers, Noah and Fred Keswick are about her age and fun. Bailey, and Justin Rudd, a neighborhood boy with a reputation of being a bully, are hired to help the Keswicks with cleaning and repairs before they open their home as a country inn. The kids excitedly discover valuable and historic items among the trash inside the old house. Then, one by one, these treasures disappear. Justin's unusual behavior makes him the main suspect as "detectives" Noah, Fred, and Bailey try to solve the mystery. Nonfiction elements include Native-Americans.

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

A graduate of Oberlin College with a degree in English, Linda is an author and journalist. Among her 16 books published to date are the award-winning Bailey Fish Adventure series (nine books so far), "Mudd Saves the Earth," a humorous environmental book for kids, and for growun-ups, "Mother's: A novel of hoarding, friending and mischief," and "But You Don't Look Funny," a collection of readers' favorites from her weekly column that spanned more than two decades.

Linda is a mother and grandmother, a former foster parent (which has shaped her children's stories), and loves to travel and boat with her husband. She reads constantly despite cats fighting for lap space. She is passionate about music and plays cello and viola at every opportunity.

Reviews

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice story for middle schoolers. Thanks to the author for an ARC of this book.

[Terry]

Bailey wears her thoughts and emotions on her sleeve, which makes it easy to connect with her character. The author does a masterful job layering the plot with other themes (adoption, friendship, judging others) and information to pique a reader's interest: homeschooling, bullying, Native American tribes, and classic literature. Although this is a different genre, and Bailey is not a super-sleuth, the story-telling style will remind you of Carolyn Keene and Nancy Drew.

To read our full review, go to the Reading Tub.