Smoke & Mirrors

Perfect for fans of Locke and Key, Secrets of Sulphur Springs, and Nancy Drew

When a Black boy is forced to spend his summer refurbishing an old mansion, he's pulled into the unsolved mystery of the previous owner, a famous magician who disappeared without a trace.

Spending the summer with his aunt as the only Black kid in a small Midwestern town was bad enough, but now Andy's summer has been effectively ruined. His dad’s parole hearing is postponed, he misses his friends, and—when an old barn burns down—he’s stuck taking the blame. Andy is sentenced with helping the barn’s owner, a cantankerous old man, renovate his crumbling mansion—a mansion that hides a mystery. It was once owned by the famous magician the Red Nave. In 1954, the Nave was a wanted suspect in the town’s most infamous murder before disappearing without a trace. The whole town is sure the Red Nave is guilty, but to Andy, things just don’t add up.

Investigating a mystery from the ’50s isn’t the same as spending time with his dad, but Andy can’t help but be drawn into the Red Nave’s exciting world of magic and illusion. To solve the Nave’s final vanishing act, Andy teams up with another boy he doesn’t quite trust. Secret by secret, they try to uncover the Red Nave’s identity and learn why his last performance came to such a tragic end.