Through a Dark Tunnel by Lawrence Walsh, Suella Walsh

Brad and Molly, self-appointed fifth grade private investigators, are on their second case. This one is a double-dip. Friend Penny's cat, Midnight, is missing, and Molly is sure that she is in the creepy old Donahue house, now said to be haunted, and the scene of a murder years ago. Molly believes the old, still-sorrowing widower Donohue when he insists that his wife was murdered. Searching for the cat brings the PI's into scary confrontations with ghostly old Mr. Morgan, head of the Limestone Development Corporation, who is still feuding with old Donahue and trying to buy the house and land around it. Events come to a startling resolution in a secret tunnel beneath the house that holds an old canteen, a mysterious skeleton, and the answer to Midnight's disappearance. Young readers will find this mystery engaging. Interpersonal relationships are looked at, and what seems to be, is probed for what really is. Old-timers need to refocus, as does a teenage grandson. Even PI Molly discovers that her behavior as a big sister needs modifying.

The authors are members of Mystery Writers of America.