Margaret E. McKenna

Retired police chief Edmund DeCleryk finds Emily Bradford's body on the beach below where the local museum and historical society stands. At the same time, a break-in has been reported at the museum, and Emily's coat and purse are found hanging on a peg in the gift shop, where she worked. When the police chief is called out of town for a family emergency, he hires Ed to assist with the murder investigation. After several leads don't pan out, the chief decides to close the case. Confident that with more time the murder can be solved, Ed is determined to continue investigating.

Strange things are happening in the Cape Cod sand dunes. There have been sightings of an unknown creature in the National Seashore, part African lion, part … something else?

Here is the classic Gothic mystery combining a lurking sense of danger in a strongly atmospheric setting, a Hound of the Baskervilles-style case involving the reawakening of an ancient family curse dating back to the whaling days of New Bedford, and a curse foretelling another death about to take place.

Frank and Joe Hardy receive an unusual assignment from their detective father. They are to "break into" the house of a Bayport neighbor, Malcolm Wright and retrieve a top-secret invention that the scientist had hidden in his study before leaving for California. The invention is in danger of being stolen and the boys race against time to beat the thieves at their own game. The young detectives soon discover that they are involved in a mystery far greater in scope than just retrieving the invention.