The Empty Seat

Some absences are accidents. Some are arranged.When Amara Adisa stops coming to school after winter break, nobody makes an announcement. No explanation is given, no transfer paperwork filed, no note sent home. Just an empty desk in the third row, second from the window - and three weeks of silence from the administration that feels too deliberate to be an accident.The Curious Club notices what everyone else has learned to overlook.Hannah Chen has her corkboard. Rohan Patel has his laptop. Julia Martinez has her instincts. Jaden Washington has his sketchbook. Together they've solved eight cases at Oakwood Middle School - stolen secrets, hidden fraud, and everything in between. But this case is different. This time, the trail leads not to another student but straight into the administration itself.What they uncover is bigger than a missing classmate: two years of stolen funds hidden in plain sight, a cover-up that reaches the highest level of the school, and a girl who had quietly been building the same case they're now racing to finish - before the school board's quarterly audit closes the records forever.Amara Adisa wasn't just a student who disappeared. She was an investigator. And she left her evidence somewhere no one thought to look.The Curious Club has five days. The clock is running.A gripping, fast-paced mystery about institutional secrets, the courage it takes to follow the truth all the way to the end, and what happens when the people who are supposed to protect you are the ones you need protection from.Book 9 in The Curious Club Mysteries series. Perfect for readers ages 8-14 who love clever detectives, real stakes, and stories that don't look away.

Pages: 76, Paperback, Independently published