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Authors: Mac Barnett

The Ghostwriter Secret

BOOK: The Ghostwriter Secret
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THE GHOSTWRITER
SECRET

Read all the Brixton Brothers Mysteries:
#1
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity

SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales
are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's
imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2010 by Mac Barnett
Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Adam Rex

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

S
IMON
& S
CHUSTER
B
OOKS FOR
Y
OUNG
R
EADERS
is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster
Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected].

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more
information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau
at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at
www.simonspeakers.com
.

Book design by Lizzy Bromley

The text for this book is set in Souvenir.

The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally with a Wacom tablet and Photoshop CS3.

Manufactured in the United States of America

0910 FFG

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barnett, Mac.

The ghostwriter secret / Mac Barnett ; illustrated by Adam Rex. — 1st ed.

p. cm. — (Brixton Brothers ; 2)

Summary: Twelve-year-old Steve is investigating a diamond heist but
the case suddenly changes when the author of the Bailey Brothers detective novels
writes him a letter to say that he fears for his life.

ISBN 978-1-4169-7817-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)

[1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Authors—Fiction. 3. Crime—Fiction.] I. Rex, Adam, ill.
II. Title.

PZ7.B26615Gh 2010

[Fic]—dc22

2009052021

ISBN 978-1-4424-0956-9 (eBook)

For Paul Saint-Amour, Dan Birkholz,
and David Foster Wallace—three wise men

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
 
I
S
UNDAY
II
P
OLICE
T
ROUBLE
III
A S
TRANGE
C
ALL
IV
A
N
A
LARM IN THE
N
IGHT
V
A N
EW
C
ASE
VI
J
EWEL
H
EIST!
VII
A S
ECRET
U
NCOVERED
VIII
U
NIDENTIFIED
F
LYING
O
BJECT
IX
D
EATH
T
HREAT
X
A M
YSTERIOUS
L
ETTER
XI
A C
ALL FOR
H
ELP
XII
A
N
I
NTERROGATION
XIII
S
EARCHING FOR
C
LUES
XIV
A S
INISTER
T
RAP
XV
S
ECURITY
B
REACH!
XVI
A T
RUE
C
HUM
XVII
T
HE
I
NVESTIGATION
B
EGINS
XVIII
S
PADEWORK
XIX
B
REAKING AND
E
NTERING
XX
T
HE
M
ISSING
M
AN'S
R
OOM
XXI
A D
EADLY
M
ISTAKE
XXII
A T
ERRIBLE
S
TRUGGLE
XXIII
C
APTURED!
XXIV
U
NDERWATER
C
HAOS
XXV
D
ANGER FROM
A
BOVE
XXVI
T
HE
B
EE
S
YNDICATE
XXVII
T
WO
D
ETECTIVES
XXVIII
T
HE
V
IPERS'
D
EN
XXIX
T
HE
B
EES'
N
EST
XXX
G
HOSTWRITERS
XXXI
T
HE
T
RAIL
G
OES
F
RIGID
XXXII
A H
UNCH
XXXIII
I
T
H
APPENED AT
M
IDNIGHT
XXXIV
E
AVESDROPPING
XXXV
F
IRESTORM
XXXVI
T
ROUBLE IN THE
H
OSPITAL
XXXVII
G
OING
H
OME
XXXVIII
B
IG
C
ITY
C
HASE
XXXIX
T
HE
V
ANISHING
S
EDAN
XL
C
APTURED!
A
GAIN!
XLI
W
ELCOME
N
EWS
XLII
A D
ARING
P
LAN
XLIII
A
MBUSH
XLIV
A
N
U
NDERGROUND
E
SCAPE
XLV
F
IENDISHLY
B
ETRAYED
XLVI
T
HROUGH THE
F
OREST
XVII
C
ASE
C
LOSED

THE GHOSTWRITER
SECRET

CHAPTER I
SUNDAY

I
T WAS
S
UNDAY
, which was Steve Brixton's least favorite day of the week, and the sun was setting, which was Steve Brixton's least favorite part of a Sunday. But Steve was on his living room couch reading Bailey Brothers #19:
The Strange Case of the Strangest Stranger
, which was part of Steve Brixton's most favorite series of all time: the Bailey Brothers Mysteries.

The Bailey Brothers Mysteries were fifty-eight high-octane adventures featuring Shawn and Kevin Bailey, two quick-thinking, hard-punching teens who never met a case they couldn't crack, a motorcycle they couldn't ride, or an avalanche they couldn't cause and
subsequently survive. Sleuthing ran in their family: They were the sons of the great American detective Harris Bailey, and they were terrific sleuths in their own right.

There were fifty-eight thrilling and perfect Bailey Brothers mysteries in all—starting with Bailey Brothers #1:
The Treasure in Trouble Harbor
and ending with Bailey Brothers #58:
Spacejacked!
—all written by the same author, MacArthur Bart.

MacArthur Bart, a.k.a. America's Mystery King, a.k.a. Steve's hero, had also written the book Steve loved above all others:
The Bailey Brothers' Detective Handbook
. The handbook was packed with Real Crime-Solving Tips—stuff like How to Make a Plaster Cast of a Scoundrel's Shoe Print, and Surefire Methods for Defusing Some Kinds of Time Bombs. Basically all the high-level supersleuth stuff.

Steve had the handbook pretty much memorized, but he still carried it around with him wherever he went. In fact Steve had all the plots to the Bailey Brothers Mysteries memorized, but he still liked reading the books second and third times. Plus it was research, since a few weeks ago Steve had officially opened his own business, the Brixton Brothers Detective Agency. Steve didn't have a brother, or even a sister, but putting “brothers” in the name of your detective agency
was a great way to make it sound totally ace.

Right now Steve didn't have a case to work on, which was why he was lying on the couch—the living room aglow with the last of the day's sun—and finishing chapter eighteen of his book. A gang of car thieves had just captured the Bailey Brothers and was holding the boys in a sea-cave hideout:

“You creeps will never get away with this!” dark-haired Shawn Bailey hollered. “Crime doesn't pay!”

The large lawbreaker with the salt-and-pepper beard looked up from the game of cards. “It doesn't, eh?” he growled. “Then hows come we've got enough tourin' cars and roadsters stashed away in the old barn to make a fortune?”

BOOK: The Ghostwriter Secret
3.69Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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