Betsy Cromer Byars

All summer Sara Godfrey has fretted over herself, her impossible body, her terrible new haircut. One moment she's elated, the next, she's in tears....

Together with her best friend and reluctant sidekick, Meat, Herculeah Jones meets a famous mystery author, Mathias King, aka the Murder King. King's novels mirror gruesome real-life murders, particularly A Slash of Life, which is about an unsolved local stabbing....

Amen "Amie" McBee, the youngest of five sisters, gobbles up words the way other children gobble up sweets....

When Herculeah Jones's best friend, Meat, decides to take a comedy class, he just expects to get a few laughs. But then he discovers a dead body in the bathroom and realizes that there's nothing funny about murder. Things can't get any worse - until the body disappears....

When Herculeah discovers a mysterious letter inside the lining of a secondhand coat, she suspects it's a desperate cry for help. If so, what happened to the person who wrote it? Herculeah thinks she knows the answer. What she doesn't know is that someone is watching her....

At the eerie Hunt mansion, Herculeah Jones has been reading aloud to Lionus Hunt, a stroke victim who can only communicate by blinking his eyes (once for yes, twice for no). Mr. Hunt seems to be trying to tell Herculeah something, but his gruff nurse won't allow her to ask any questions....