Knives Out meets Finding Orion in this funny and heartwarming middle grade mystery by award-winning author Kristin O’ Donnell Tubb about a girl investigating the recent death of her uncle only to find the healing power of family.
Chloe Alvarez has never been to the reading of a last will and testament before, but she hopes it is just like the movies. Lies! Intrigue! The reading of her Uncle Will’ s will is standard, until he announces his gift for Chloe: his African grey parrot, Charlie.
Uncle Will was Chloe’ s best friend. Without him, she’ s left with only her memories of them together— which come to her in snapshots— and her new friend, Charlie. The parrot has a vast vocabulary, and soon Chloe hears her say something odd: It was murder, followed by homicide and cyanide. Chloe becomes convinced her uncle Will’ s death was foul play. Why else wouldn’ t he have told anyone in the family— especially Chloe— that he was sick?
With the help of her family, Chloe begins the investigation to uncover Uncle Will’ s murderer. The suspects: His nosy neighbor. An ex-girlfriend. A rude landlord. A loan shark. But it all leads to more questions than answers. Did someone really kill Uncle Will? Or could this journey help reunite Chloe’ s grieving family?
