THE MYSTERY OF LOCKED ROOMS by Lindsay Currie

I fell in love with the cover of THE MYSTERY OF LOCKED ROOMS by Lindsay Currie, and I’m excited to read the book when it debuts tomorrow, April 2, 2024!

Crack the codes. Find the treasure. Escape the house. From the acclaimed author of Scritch Scratch and What Lives in the Woods comes a action-packed adventure novel about three friends who team up to find a hidden treasure in an abandoned 1950’s funhouse. Twelve-year-old Sarah Greene wants nothing more from her seventh-grade year than to beat the hardest escape room left in her town with her best friends, West, and Hannah. But when a foreclosure notice shows up on Sarah’s front door, everything changes. Since her father became ill two years ago, things have been bad, but not lose your house bad…until now. Sarah feels helpless until the day Hannah mentions a treasure rumored to be hidden in the walls of an abandoned funhouse. According to legend, Hans, Stefan, and Karl Stein were orphaned at eight years old and lived with different families until they were able to reunite as adults. Their dream was to build the most epic funhouse in existence. They wanted their experience to be more than mirror mazes and optical illusions, so they not only created elaborate riddles and secret passages, but they also claimed to have hidden a treasure inside the funhouse. Once in, Sarah, West, and Hannah realize the house is unlike any escape room they’ve attempted. There are challenges, yes, but they feel personal. Like the triplets knew who would get in. It seems impossible, but so does everything about the house. As soon as they’re in she immediately worries that attempting the funhouse is a bad idea but Sarah has no choice but to continue, since her future is at stake.

According to your website bio, you enjoy researching the forgotten history in your city of Chicago. What is something you’ve discovered about Chicago’s history that you wish more people knew about?

Honestly, there are so many wacky things in Chicago’s history that it’s hard to choose just one. That said, I wrote Scritch Scratch about the SS Eastland disaster because I think that’s a tragedy that really shaped my city and it’s unfortunate that most people don’t know about it, or have never heard of it.

I just looked up the SS Eastland disaster and wow! I’m so glad you included it in one of your other books. In THE MYSTERY OF LOCKED ROOMS, I love how Sarah and her friends have to find their way through an abandoned funhouse. Without giving away spoilers, what surprised you the most about Sarah’s journey?

Thank you! I really wanted the puzzles and riddles in this funhouse to challenge my characters not only physically and mentally, but emotionally. So I worked hard to create a funhouse that forces them to face their insecurities – and let’s be honest, in middle school, we all have a lot of insecurities. The thing that surprised me the most was how beautiful that part of this adventure story became – showing these three brave tweens being vulnerable and also lifting each other up in tough moments was a truly heartwarming experience!

Interesting! I also love the book trailer for THE MYSTERY OF LOCKED ROOMS! What advice, if any, do you have for authors looking to produce book trailers?

Thank you, I love it, too! To be honest, I really don’t have advice on this because while I wish I could take credit for that trailer, I can not. My publisher had that created and I’m grateful because my shaky skills in iMovie would not have pulled that off.

Yup, my video-making skills are shaky at best too! What are some of your current projects?

Currently I am working on the sequel to Mystery of Locked Rooms and soon, I’ll be diving into line edits on my February of 2025 release with Delacorte called It’s Watching!

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