A plea for help from her cousin sends 14-year-old Vanessa back to the family's farm near Fishers, Ind. She learns that the farm's mortgage has been sold and her cousin's family might have to move away if they can't come up with money to pay off the mortgage in two weeks. But more is going on than it appears, and her latest adventure is described in this new novel released by Dog Ear Publishing, which earned an Award of Literary Excellence from the company.
Set in the summer of 1967, "The Mystery of Gatewood Airport: A Vanessa Mystery" again brings together Vanessa and her cousins Emma, Luke, and Daniel, who also starred in "The Ghost of Cheeney Creek." In this second book of the series, Vanessa first hears about the trouble with the farm. While exploring her cousins' new treehouse, she finds it's the perfect perch from which they can spy on suspicious characters at the nearby private airport.
And there's plenty to see at the airport. Putting together clues, she and her cousins realize more is going on there than shuttling people and legal cargo: illegal exotic animal smuggling by a prominent businessman and his accomplices. Further complicating her visit is her interest in the cute boy who flirted with her earlier in the summer, but relationships can be complicated, especially when another girl is involved.
Vanessa and her cousins realize they must stop the smuggling operation, but first they need to get proof, and that may put them in danger. When a beloved pet goes missing, however, it's the final straw needed to make them take drastic action - but it could be their last.
Author Madalyn Kinsey, a partner in an Indianapolis law firm, has also lived in Chicago and San Francisco. She is a freelance writer for various publications, and she performed with the choruses of the Chicago and Indianapolis symphony orchestras, thanks to her musical training at Indiana University. Kinsey, who was raised in Indianapolis, was inspired by a Civil War-era graveyard, a creepy creek, and other aspects of the family farm in rural Indiana she visited as a child. She also wrote the novel "The Ghost of Cheeney Creek," a prequel to her current book.
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