The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada’s Reef by Michael D. Beil || Addictive MG Mystery With Heart

The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada's Reef

Punctuated with transcripts, letters, maps, black-and-white illustrations and more, The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada's Reef is a vibrant contemporary mystery with a classic feel exploring righting past wrongs, redefining family, and finding yourself.

Twelve-year-old Lark Heron-Finch is steeling herself to spend the summer on Swallowtail Island off the shores of Lake Erie. It's the first time that she and her sister will have seen the old house since their mom passed away. And while her stepfather and his boys are okay, the island's always been full of happy memories--and now everything is different.

When Nadine, a close family friend, tells Lark about a tragic boat accident that happened off the coast many years before, Lark's enthralled with the story. Nadine's working on a book about Dinah Purdy, Swallowtails's oldest resident who had a connection to the crash, and she's sure that the accident was not as it appeared. Impressed by Lark's keen eye, she hires her as her research assistant for the summer.

And then Lark discovers something amazing. Something that could change Dinah's life. Something linked to the crash and even to her own family's history with Swallowtail. But there are others on the island who would do anything to keep the truth buried in the watery depths of the past.

A compelling and complex mystery with a classic feel, Wreck at Ada's Reef is perfect for fans of The Parker Inheritance, Holes, The Westing Game, and anyone looking for a satisfying puzzle that stretches across decades.

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• A compelling cold case mystery that needs solving.
• Putting together clues and spotting inconsistencies.
• Heartwarming family dynamics.
• Grief and healing and family coming together from the loss of a parent.
• Blended family rep!
• Lots of talk of horses!

Many thanks to Pixel+ink and Rockstar Book Tours for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes taken from an unfinished product and may differ from the final book.

The cover for this book gave me all the flashbacks to so many other popular middle grade mystery books that I’ve read and enjoyed, so of course it grabbed my attention. I have to admit, I’m also a sucker for blended families, coming from a (very) blended family myself. Plus, who doesn’t love having to solve a cold case mystery that’s changed the history of an entire island?

The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada’s Reef is an addictive middle grade mystery with a case that will intrigue and stump readers. Plus, a blended family that will win hearts!

Listen, I didn’t think I would love the Heron-Finches nearly as much as I did! Oh, sure, the mystery is definitely a big draw (and a solid reason that I read this in one day, since I had to know what happened!). But the family! First, I love the blended family representation in general, but I also loved the chemistry between the siblings and how absolutely hard Thomas is trying, as a newly single father raising five kids. While I definitely enjoyed the mystery, I’d love to read more books featuring this family!

Welcome to Swallowtail Island, a peaceful little place cut off from the rest of civilization, with a dark past that reshaped the island’s future.

The island is where Lark’s mother grew up, and after her mother’s passing, Lark and her family find their way back there for the summer. You know, as a chance to regroup and heal together. On its surface, the remote island seems like an idyllic place for that, right? Sure, if you discount the tragedy that happened decades ago that none of the residents could explain, which seemed to have just been swept under the rug. Of course I’m talking about the tragic boating accident that took the life of the most prominent lawyer only a day after the town’s wealthiest citizen died of natural causes. Sounds just a teensy bit hinky, right?

Lark thinks so, too, and despite all the other things on her mind (or maybe because of them), she firmly latches on to this mystery and sets her mind to helping a family friend named Nadine find out what really happened. As with a lot of middle grade mysteries, this one was solved fairly easily, mostly by fortuitous discoveries that all line up perfectly, but it still kept me guessing along the way! Some of the things Lark pulls off in the end are highly unrealistic, but you know what? By then, I was so invested that I didn’t even care, I was just eating up the tension of it all!

Lark comes from a blended family, and now that her mother has passed, her stepfather and stepbrothers are all her and her sister have.

This doesn’t appear to be a problem for Pip, of course, who’s young enough to roll with it. For Lark, though, who’s older, she’s having a hard time wrestling with her grief and what it means for her future. She doesn’t hate her stepfather or stepbrothers, but the situation also isn’t what she had imagined for herself. At times, she’s unkind or unfair and she knows it, but she’s doing her best. Everyone is.

As someone who comes from a blended family, I absolutely love the representation in this book. It’s hard trying to mesh a newly widowed parent (for the second time) with five grieving kids, and I appreciate the way the characters navigate this. It’s not always pretty, but it’s full of heart!

As I mentioned, Lark is really just one of five siblings, but her and her whole family all have their own unique interests and personality, which makes them really fun to get to know!

I feel like a lot of little girls, especially, will relate to Lark’s younger sister, Pip, who is absolutely obsessed with horses. I also suspect there will be people to who relate to Pip’s family, who are really freaking tired of hearing about horses, even if they’re glad she’s passionate about something. This dynamic never failed to crack me up!

The fact that all the characters were very passionate about different things really solidified their personalities for me and made them all easier to love. Even Thomas, whose passion is art, particularly art restoration. There couldn’t be a nerdier thing to be passionate about, but I loved seeing him get excited about it!

This family dynamic is just *chef’s kiss*.

Listen, the siblings don’t always get along (and what siblings do?!), but I absolutely love this dynamic. They’re still trying to figure out what it means to be siblings without a mother (and for Thomas’ boys, this is the second mother they’ve lost). But one thing’s for sure: no matter what happens, they’re still siblings. And Thomas is an active and involved father, despite everything going on in his life. Even though the main draw of this story is obviously the mystery, I just couldn’t get enough of this family!

About Michael D. Beil

In a time not long after the fifth extinction event, Edgar Award-nominated author Michael D. Beil came of age on the shores of Pymatuning Lake, where the ducks walk on the fish. (Look it up. Seriously.) He is the author of the Red Blazer Girls series, Summer at Forsaken Lake, Lantern Sam and the Blue Streak Bandits, and Agents of the Glass: A New Recruit. For reasons that can't be disclosed until September 28, 2041, he now lives somewhere in Portugal with his wife and their two white cats, Bruno and Maisie. He still gets carsick if he has to ride in the back seat for long and feels a little guilty that he doesn't keep a journal. For more on the author and his books, visit him online at www.michaeldbeil.com.

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3 winners will receive a finished copy of THE SWALLOWTAIL LEGACY: Wreck at Ada’s Reef, US Only.

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