Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, in the old house that belonged to her grandmother, who died after being dismissed as city manager for having the city tennis courts dug up looking for buried treasure--but when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, she finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out to find the inheritance, exonerate her grandmother, and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert. - (Baker & Taylor)

Spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, Candice discovers the letter that sent her grandmother on a treasure hunt, and with her new friend Brandon, sets off to expose the injustice once committed against a local African American family. - (Baker & Taylor)

A Boston Globe / Horn Book Honor winner * Four Starred Reviews * Over Ten Best-of-Year Lists"Powerful.... Johnson writes about the long shadows of the past with such ambition that any reader with a taste for mystery will appreciate the puzzle Candice and Brandon must solve." -- The New York Times Book Review

Varian Johnson is the author of several novels for children and young adults, including The Parker Inheritance, which won both Coretta Scott King Author Honor and Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor awards, The Great Greene Heist, an ALA Notable Children’s book, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book, and a Texas Library Association Lone Star List selection, and the graphic novel Twins co-created with Shannon Wright, an NPR Best Book. He lives with his family near Austin, Texas. You can visit him on the web at varianjohnson.com and @varianjohnson. - (Scholastic)

Booklist Reviews

From the author of The Great Greene Heist (2014) comes the exciting adventure of two kids searching for a hidden treasure. Candice's summer has been the worst, until she finds a letter in her grandma's attic that led to her grandma being driven out of their town of Lambert, South Carolina. The letter offers clues about the untold history of a young African American woman named Siobhan Washington and about a secret game of tennis. Candice teams up with Brandon, the boy next door, and dives into the hidden history of Lambert to finish what her grandma started. Following each new discovery, Johnson reveals a key moment in the past that uncovers a secret love and a great injustice. While Candice works through her parents' divorce and moving, Brandon deals with being bullied by a boy from school. The mystery offers them a way to seek justice for Candice's grandma, but it also helps them deal with their own struggles. A dazzling and emotional read that deals with serious topics such as bullying, racism, and divorce. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

African American city manager Abigail Caldwell was forced to resign in Lambert, South Carolina, after covertly looking for buried treasure. A decade later, her twelve-year-old granddaughter Candice, an intelligent, endearing, and believable protagonist, is following the same arcane clues, hoping to uncover the Parker inheritance. Johnson's Westing Gameinspired tale is a tangled historical mystery, satisfying multigenerational family story, and exploration of race and racism. Copyright 2018 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

In 2007 Abigail Caldwell, the first female and African American city manager for ?the town of Lambert, South Carolina, was forced to resign after covertly digging ?up the municipal tennis courts, looking for buried treasure. Now, a decade later, ?the late Abigail's twelve-year-old granddaughter Candice is following the same arcane clues, hoping to uncover the Parker inheritance—but who was Parker? ?Johnson's Westing Game–inspired tale is a tangled historical mystery, a satisfying multigenerational family story, and an exploration of twentieth-century (and contemporary) race and racism. Chapters alternate between the present, in which Candice grapples with making new friends, dealing with her parents' divorce, and puzzling together information, and the past, particularly 1957, when a secret, integrated high school tennis match led to a violent racist attack. Johnson's narrative revels in its puzzle-story elements ("She leaned back in the chair and spun in place. Maybe we're reading this too literally. Maybe it's more figurative. Like, if it's a sum, maybe we should convert the clues to numbers"), and his protagonist is intelligent, endearing, and believable; scenes with her father, especially, have both humor and poignancy. Well-placed textual clues keep historical context and race relations at the front of readers' minds—and examining those constructs, ingeniously, provides the key to solving the mystery. elissa gershowitz Copyright 2018 Horn Book Magazine Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

Summer is off to a terrible start for 12-year old African-American Candice Miller. Six months after her parents' divorce, Candice and her mother leave Atlanta to spend the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, at her grandmother's old house. When her grandmother Abigail passed two years ago, in 2015, Candice and her mother struggled to move on. Now, without any friends, a computer, cellphone, or her grandmother, Candice suffers immense loneliness and boredom. When she starts rummaging through the attic and stumbles upon a box of her grandmother's belongings, she discovers an old letter that details a mysterious fortune buried in Lambert and that asks Abigail to find the treasure. After Candice befriends the shy, bookish African-American kid next door, 11-year-old Brandon Jones, the pair set off investigating the clues. Each new revelation uncovers a long history of racism and tension in the small town and how one family threatened the black/white status quo. Johnson's latest no vel holds racism firmly in the light. Candice and Brandon discover the joys and terrors of the reality of being African-American in the 1950s. Without sugarcoating facts or dousing it in post-racial varnish, the narrative lets the children absorb and reflect on their shared history. The town of Lambert brims with intrigue, keeping readers entranced until the very last page. A candid and powerful reckoning of history. (Historical mystery. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus 2017 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

After her parents divorce, 12-year-old Candice Miller begrudgingly moves with her mother from Atlanta to the small town of Lambert, S.C., for the summer. In the attic of Candice's late grandmother's house she finds a letter addressed to her grandmother, which promises treasure to the city if the letter's puzzle can be solved. Candice then learns that her grandmother's efforts to do so years earlier cost her both her reputation and her job as the first African-American city manager in Lambert. Candice digs into the mystery along with Brandon, an 11-year-old neighbor who is being bullied. The two bookworms have just a few months to find the fortune and repair Candice's grandmother's legacy, and they come to discover how racism has poisoned the town over the years. It's a gripping mystery, and the plot shifts smoothly between Candice's present-day story and flashback sections that reveal Lambert's history of injustice. Johnson (To Catch a Cheat) addresses important issues gracefully, particularly having the freedom to live a life of one's choosing and the long-lasting effects of discrimination. Ages 8–12. Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties. (Mar.)

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 4–6—Part historical fiction, part critical problem-solving exercise, part suspenseful mystery, this story weaves through the past and present of one town's struggle with hatred and racism. Candice and her mother have moved temporarily from Washington, D.C., to her mother's hometown in Lambert, SC, while her parents finalize the plans of their amicable divorce. Candice is miserable until she meets Brandon and finds an old letter addressed to her from her deceased grandmother with a puzzle enclosed. Twenty years prior, her grandmother had tried unsuccessfully to solve the puzzle that would yield a great deal of money to the town and the person who solved it. Together, Candice and Brandon make their own attempt. Who were Enoch, Leanne, and Siobhan Washington? How does an illegal tennis match played in 1957 between the white Wallace School and African American Perkins School factor into the solution? The characters are varied, authentic, and well developed. The plot moves along quickly and seamlessly between the past and present, with chapters from the 1950s shaded in light gray for a smart visual effect. The present day isn't sugarcoated, showing readers that racial equity is still an unresolved problem. Appended author notes offer additional context, making it an excellent link to social studies or history units. VERDICT A must-purchase for most libraries, especially where Johnson's previous titles have fans.—Anne Jung-Mathews, Plymouth State University, NH