Tricksters - Darcy Towers

Name: Lara Cummings

Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary Mystery

Title: Darcy Towers

Word Count: 46,000 words


Hero: My protagonist thinks she most identifies with Princess/Queen Elsa from the movie Frozen. While she hasn't been cursed with freezing powers, she feels cursed and burdened with "orphan-hood." But really she is Princess Anna in that she pulls out her amazing courage in a huge act of love to rescue her true and real father, after she has uncovered a deep family secret and "found" him, no less, in her older brother.


Pitch: 11yo Avery always wished to know her dad, especially now that her mom’s gone too. When library records don’t list his death date she must sneak into locked archives for the truth, because “orphan-hood” sucks!



250: The library computer lab was totally silent when my knee hit the underside of the table with a bang. I scrambled to close my screen and checked around the room; everyone else was too busy to have noticed. Plus, they wouldn’t even know there was supposed to be a death date listed for him.

My stomach got weird, like it always did on taco day at school. Maybe the librarians here didn’t know how to do things. Why else would it be wrong?

According to Wikipedia I was officially an orphan, since Mom was gone now too. Some kids at school whispered about my “orphan-hood,” like I couldn’t hear them. Remembering back made a little bubble in my heart pop open. I wanted another look, so I typed in Dad’s name again.

And it wasn’t just that either. The second entry was for “diaries.” A copy of Dad’s book used to be on the shelf in our living room, but I didn’t know he had diaries.

Why would they be in the library? ­

I leaned close to the screen pretending to read his deepest thoughts... It was about me…

“Avery, did you find any?” Claire whisper-blurted, bopping me with her elbow. I ripped out this huge scream and a fart.

Like six camp counselors shushed me as I frantically checked around again. The Coyote Campers were at the library playing “Research Olympics.” For question eight we had to find a book with an author of the same last name as one of our group members.