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Samantha Ann Carlton would rather spend her summer vacation anywhere but a spooky old house in Wisconsin…like Lake Geneva!  Somehow Sam knows it is going to take more than a couple days to find a missing painting no bigger than her hand.

Maybe things won't be so bad, she thinks, since she gets to take a friend's lovable, nosy, and often mischievous Dachshund, Petey, and her best friend Lita along.  If they're lucky the three of them can find the miniature replica of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and help Sam's mother get it to the museum, where it belongs.

But it's not gonna be easy, Sam realizes, when she discovers that her family has some spooky secrets of its own.  Then Petey digs up an ancient curse and Sam fears her friendship with Lita is doomed.

Reviews:

"Gripping, surprising, and leaving you wanting more…you'll be shocked at the twists and turns…"

–Lily Huber, Grade 8

"…well written, very exciting, and hard to put down, especially with the spooky old Victorian house, scary goings-on at night, and a lot of suspense. In addition to being a nice story, it has a great deal of interesting and educational information about art in general and specifically about miniature paintings."

 –Stories for Children Magazine 

"Enjoyed sleuthing with Sam and Lita–and Dachshund Petey–so much that I can hardly wait for their next case!"

–Gay Toltl Kinman, Agatha Award nominee and author of Super Sleuth

Christine Verstraete thinks you're never too old to play with dollhouses, so when she's not writing, she's probably working on a new miniature project.

Pets, especially dogs, also manage to find their way into many of Christine's projects and stories, with her real life dog serving as inspiration for her book's mischievous Dachshund, Petey. Christine's real house is home, as well, to assorted fish and birds, plus wild turtles, and frogs that crawl across her lawn each summer. 

Christine has had short fiction and nonfiction published in various magazines and online. Her short horror story, "The Witch Tree," was a contest winner published by Echelon Press. She also is author of the ebook, "In Miniature Style," with miniatures photos, stories about collectors and how-to projects. Learn more and see some of Christine's miniatures collection at http://cverstraete.com.

Quick Facts:

Title: Searching for A Starry Night

Author: Christine A. Verstraete

ISBN:  978-1-59080-579-4

Genre: Mystery

Age: 10+

Pages:  232

Price:  $11.99 US   $14.99 CAN

Distribution::

Echelon Press Direct 410-878-7113

Ingram Book Company

Partners Book Dist. 800-336-3137

Follett Corp. 800-435-6170

Amazon

Fictionwise

Kindle

For review copies and author event information, please contact Karen Syed at
PUBLICITY@echelonpress.com