Robin’s point was equally valid, too, though. Hello, my name is Brooklyn, and I’m a dead-body magnet. That would be a sickness requiring immediate intervention and possibly a twelve-step program. It wasn’t like I went out in search of them, for Pete’s sake. She was also right to say that I couldn’t help it.

Mom had a point, since I did have a disturbing tendency to stumble over dead bodies.

“I do, too,” I said, holding back a sigh. “Of course she didn’t,” Mom said, and winked at Robin. “Mom, I don’t think Robin meant it that way.” She can’t help finding, you know, dead people.” None of that talk.” Leaning away from me, she whispered, “Robin, sweetie, we mustn’t mock Brooklyn. Naturally, my mother, who had the ultrasonic hearing ability of a fruit bat, overheard her. “Or double homicide victims,” my friend Robin muttered in my ear. “Two whole months living right next door to each other. “Won’t this be fun?” My mother squeezed me with painful enthusiasm. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. When a new presence threatens the town's peace, Brooklyn decides to do a little excavating of her own and solve the mystery of the treasure before anyone else is written off. Hidden in the book is a secret map that unveils an even greater hoard of treasures brought to California by French winemakers fleeing the Nazi invasion with the commune leader's grandfather, Anton, among them.Īs reporters and art appraisers flock to Sonoma to see the precious bounty, questions begin to rise-did Anton hide these items to protect them, or did he steal them for himself? Who is the mysterious man left for dead inside the cave? But not all crime is buried in the past. A room is unearthed, and it contains a treasure trove of artwork, rare books, a chest of jewelry.and a perfectly mummified body.Ī closer examination of the murdered man's possessions reveals a valuable first edition of Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth. When book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright temporarily relocates to her parents' place in Northern California, she finds that wooden barrels aren't the only things buried in the wine caves of Sonoma.Įxcited to explore the secrets of wine country, Brooklyn attends an excavation of the caves hidden deep under her parents' commune-and the findings are explosive.

Ripped From the Pages by Kate Carlisle