Agnes Kelly
Mystery Adventure
Book I
Intrigue in Istanbul
Everyone at the table is as surprised by Grandma’s little maneuver as I am, but I’m not looking at my relatives or even at Peggy, I’ve got my eyes glued on Grandma Agee. She’s reading Uncle Bob the riot act over at the dessert table…I’m concentrating hard on Grandma’s face, specifically her lips. But she’s turned ever so slightly away from me so I can only make out a bit of what she’s saying: “I told ya…” and “…button your lip” among the finger wagging and eye scowling she’s giving poor Uncle Bob.
With Grandma’s odd reaction and my dad being gone, unable to explain himself to me ever again, I feel an urgent need to find out what in the world he “got into” that Grandma Agee doesn’t want me to know about.
Book One of the Agnes Kelly Mystery Adventure Series will make you laugh, set you on the edge of your seat and leave you wanting more - both the older and younger reader alike.
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The Award-winning Intrigue in Istanbul: An Agnes Kelly Mystery Adventure is set in 1961, a time of the cold war and space race. But that isn’t on Agnes’ radar. Her dad has died and during a trip with her grandmother to Istanbul, she accidentally finds out it was under suspicious circumstances, but that’s just the beginning!
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Behind the Story
I was inspired to write this book by the Alan Bradley Flavia de Luce series, but wanted to the main character to be from the US and to be set in the 1960s. A turbulent time in US history.
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Agnes is a book lover and a lover of words - hence her "Cool Words" list. So for a 12 year old, she knows more words than your average 12 year old because she has looked them up. I don't know about you, but when I'm reading and I come across a word I don't know, I just skip over it. I rarely go to a dictionary (or internet dictionary) and look it up. I debated and asked my beta readers (my pre-publication readers) about adding Agnes' definitions. You are taught that in writing a fictional story, you never want to take the reader out of the story, slow down the flow of the text, but I wanted to make it easy for the younger readers to understand some of the more difficult words. In the end, I kept in the definitions.
So far, most people don't seem to mind :)
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You might be wondering why Agnes has such a big family. Well, earlier in the 29th century, it was more common for people to have big families and since this story is set in 1961, it makes sense for Agnes to live in a big family. It also serves a purpose in my story. (part of reason #2 below)
But why make all her siblings boys? I gave Agnes a lot of brothers for two reasons: 1- I have a lot of brothers. I have six to be exact and no sister. Don't worry, I had a good female friend, Tracy, who lived in my neighborhood. She had five sisters. So if I wanted some girl-time, all I would have to do is go over to Tracy's house. (She had five brothers too!)
2 - I needed a reason for Grandma Agee to take Agnes on this trip to Turkey. Being the only girl with five brothers is a good enough reason for me. How about you?!
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Agnes' story is loosely based off of a real historical event, but I can't tell you that event without giving away what will happen in future books.
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I will reveal all in the Book III of the Agnes Kelly Mystery Adventure Series!
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Stay Tuned!