Smoke & Mirrors: A Novel

An exciting and twisty middle-grade mystery, perfect for fans of From the Desk of Zoe Washington and The Parker Inheritance, about a famous magician who vanished without a trace and one boy’s quest to uncover the truth.

★ A Junior Library Guild Selection ★ A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year ★ A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year ★ A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year

Filled with hidden doors, shocking twists, magic, and mystery, Smoke & Mirrors asks a provocative question: How much of the truth is what you can get people to believe?

Spending the summer with his aunt as the only Black kid in a small Midwestern town was bad enough, but now Andy Carter’s summer has been effectively ruined. His dad’s parole hearing is postponed, he misses his friends, and when an old barn burns down, he’s stuck taking the blame. Andy is sentenced to help the barn’s cantankerous owner renovate his crumbling mansion, a mansion that hides a mystery.

The house was once owned by the famous magician the Red Knave. In 1954, the Knave became a suspect in the town’s most infamous murder before disappearing without a trace. The whole town is sure he was guilty, but to Andy, things just don’t add up. Investigating a decades-old mystery isn’t the same as spending time with his dad, but Andy can’t help being drawn into the Red Knave’s exciting world of magic and illusion.

To solve the Knave’s final vanishing act, Andy teams up with another boy he doesn’t quite trust. Secret by secret, they work to uncover the Red Knave’s identity and discover why his last performance came to such a tragic end. Along the way, Andy begins to question not only what the town believes about the vanished magician, but the assumptions people make about Andy himself.

© 2025 Amulet Books (E-bog): 9798887071190

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E-bog: 10. juni 2025