Skull Creek Stakeout, Paperback

In Transylvania, North Carolina Nick Caden finds a murder victim with fangs, bite marks and a stake driven through its heart. There are no such things as vampires ... are there?

Awards for the Caden Chronicles Middle Grade Mystery Books series

• Winner of the Selah award for Middle Grade Mystery Books
• INSPY Award nominee (runner up)
• Moonbeam Children's Book Award nominee (runner up -- tagged out at third: )

After solving the ghost story murder at Deadwood Canyon, Nick lands a job as a roving reporter for The Cool Ghoul Gazette, an app the covers paranormal events and supernatural disturbances. When the editor sends Nick to investigate a murder in Transylvania, North Carolina, the young super sleuth finds a corpse with fangs, bite marks and a stake driven through its heart. If Nick proves vampires are real, his job as an investigative journalist is set for life

But once he begins to peel back the clues surrounding the murder Nick finds his new job is not only dangerous but could suck the life out of him.

Did you know:

• According to the National Assessment of Education Progress' latest report, 64% of all eighth-grade students are unable to read proficiently.
• 82% percent of black students and 77% of Hispanic students are not reading proficiently.
• More than 30 million Americans cannot read or write above a third-grade level.
• 85% of the juveniles in the court system are functionally illiterate, as are 60% of prison inmates.
  
  nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2017/nation/achievement/?grade=8

Boys are doing worse than girls. They lag in basic reading skills behind girls. That gap increases as they age. By 12th grade, the American Psychologist tells us, girls are two times more likely to score higher on reading tests than boys.

"Though male and female protagonists are pretty evenly split in published middle grade books, the recent trend is toward female lead characters," says Raymond Arroyo, author of the 'Will Wilder' series. "Where girls will read books with either a male or female protagonist, boys are more discriminating. Like every reader, they too want to see themselves in the story. I have seen reluctant readers turn into voracious ones simply by finding a story that appealed to them."

"I wrote the 'Caden Chronicles' series with boys in mind," says author Eddie Jones. "I read, write and live at an 8th grade level. The 'Caden Chronicles' books are short murder mysteries with a spiritual supernatural element. Dead Man's Hand addresses the issue of ghosts. Skull Creek Stakeout tackles the birth of the vampire myth (it started in the Upper Room). Dead Low Tide deals with zombies and the walking dead -- all mentioned in the Bible.