Mystery of the Hermit's Hideout

Autumn has arrived in Duck Creek Village, painting the aspens in gold and bringing a chill to the mountain air. But for Finn and Leo, the season of peace is looking a lot like a season of puzzles.

At Aunt Sue's Chalet, someone is tampering with the "Best in the Mountains" salad bar-swapping croutons for bitter acorns and red onions for pungent forest forages. The trail of hemlock and pine needles leads Finn straight to Macy Halloway, a spirited local naturalist with a rebellious streak and a pine-cone pendant that seems to keep turning up in all the wrong places.

While Finn deals with the culinary chaos, a pair of flashy "van-life" influencers, Toby and Summer, roll into town. They're armed with drones, high-tech gear, and a singular obsession: unearthing the "Legendary Lost Hermit" of Cascade Falls. To the world, Silas Thorne is a notorious figure from a 1974 tragedy; to the mountain, he's a man who has earned fifty years of silence.

When the village heads down the canyon for the annual Orderville Donkey Basketball Game, a night of chaotic hoops and stubborn livestock leads to an unexpected spark between Finn and Macy-and a cryptic clue from a National Guard volunteer that changes everything.

Guided by the "echoes" of past conversations trapped in the Chalet's knotty-pine booths and a series of mysterious notes from Aunt Sue herself, Finn and Leo must pull off their most delicate balancing act yet. Can they solve the mystery of the salad bar and navigate the village's comedic "Retaining Wall War" while protecting a man who doesn't want to be found?

In Duck Creek, some secrets are buried deep in the forest... and some are better left that way.

Part of The Duck Creek Mysteries series.