The Case of the Vanishing Mail

When a feisty, curious red-headed teen BEANS (Quinn Fagioli) discovers her new neighborhood of Mill Creek, New Jersey, is rife with mysterious events, she cannot help but put her amateur sleuthing skills to work. With considerable good intentions, she recruits her reluctant neighbors BOOGER (Balthazar Bugerowski) and black-haired Adonis, VITO RUSAMANO - a novice forensics scientist and high school quarterback, to come to her aid. In THE CASE OF THE VANISHING MAIL, BEANS discovers that her belated Christmas card from her grandmother has been tampered with and the monetary gift inside, gone! Immediately, she begins her research, disturbing her community, and setting off alarms!

With Grandma Firenzi's belated Christmas gift on her mind, BEANS steps off her school bus and immediately checks her porch mailbox. To her surprise, she finds an envelope addressed to her, but it is torn open. Inside is her Christmas card, but nothing else. The card offers a funny belated holiday greeting, playing off the cover's scene of two slow-moving tortoises on a Florida beach. Then Grams added a special handwritten note, "Enjoy the cold cash. Don't let it burn a hole in your pocket. XOXO Love always, Grams." BEANS double checks the envelope, but the money is nowhere to be seen! A couple of hours later, BOOGER arrives home from his high school track practice. After BEANS informs him about her dilemma, he questions his BABCIA in the kitchen then examines his own family's mail delivery. He discovers that someone clearly tampered with a few of their envelopes. At once, BOOGER contacts his neighbor to share the important news. With grave concerns about a sneak thief in the neighborhood, BEANS decides to find out who is stealing the mail and why.

AUTHOR Ali LaVecchia is the author of the MG (Middle Grade) Booger and Beans Mystery Series. Her first book The Case of the White Knight received "5 Stars out of 5 Stars" on Good Reads followed by Mystery at Mill Creek Bridge and A Zombie on Peacock Hill, respectively. Ali continues the series with A Treasure in Satan's Knoll, The Case of the Mascot's Missing Fire, Voices Beyond the Hidden Staircase, The Ghost on the Front Porch and The Secret in the Old Scrapbook. For thirty-two years, Ali worked as a high school and middle school English, Acting, Public Speaking, Creative Writing and Film teacher. She also served as a department facilitator and Director of Curriculum and Instruction in NJ public school districts. During those years, Ali directed over sixty-one plays and musicals and served as advisor and coach of Drama Club, Peer Leadership and World AIDS Alliance. Since 1991, Ali presented several writing projects at the National Council Teachers of English (NCTE) conventions and appeared in the organization's publications. Her poetry has been showcased at the annual Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, too. She is a New Jersey native who lives in a suburb of Philadelphia with her husband John. Her days are filled with teaching in the Master of Arts in Teaching program for Fairleigh Dickinson University (mentoring, training and field supervising new as well as veteran teachers, K-12), acting in regional films and television, and, of course, writing more mysteries, starring Booger and Beans. Currently, Ali is also seeking publishers for three children's picture books, two women's fiction novels and a nonfiction MG book on Dr. James Still, historic herbologist and black doctor of the Pines. With any extra time, Ali enjoys worldwide travels, countryside bike rides and time with her adult children and granddaughters Evelina and Fiona plus grandson Cameron.