The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

 

Yesterday, I finished reading The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson. This book was an outstanding mystery about two kids who look for a hidden treasure. After her parents' divorce, Candice Miller has to spend the summer at her grandmother's house in Lambert, South Carolina, even though she would rather be back home in Atlanta. When Candice finds a letter written to her grandmother in the attic, she and a fellow book lover, Brandon Jones, get swept into the letter's clues that can lead them to a treasure and help right the injustices of the past in Lambert. Although the clues are challenging, Candice and Brandon work together to solve the puzzles and find the fortune the writer of the letter left behind.

My mind was completely blown away by this book. I absolutely adored how the letter Candice found contained ingenious puzzles that she and Brandon, her new friend, had to use cleverness and creativity to decipher. I was fascinated by the puzzles because they oftentimes contained wordplay or lead to clues that are a play on words. I also enjoyed the chapters with flashbacks to the past because they explained the events in Lambert that lead to the anonymous letter-writer hiding a huge donation to be used for improving the city and the experience Candice's grandmother had when trying to find the inheritance. Additionally, the flashbacks showed how African Americans and people of mixed race faced significant discrimination in Lambert. When writing this mystery, Varian Johnson was inspired by Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game, which is a book I really want to eventually read, too. At the end of the book, Johnson includes an author's note explaining the real-life history behind the story. If you like mysteries or puzzles, this book is a fantastic choice to read.