In Wendelin Van Draanen's The Steps, a riveting, heart-pounding mystery, the tragedy lies as much in the family that values money and power over love as it does in their violent and conniving deeds.

Fourteen-year-old Ruby Vossen is scared. Ever since her mother and aunt were killed in a car accident three years earlier, the Vossen family has been in a vicious feud over the insurance payouts and other financial matters. Ruby and her cousin Sterling, both high school freshmen, were best friends until their fathers forbade them from seeing each other, the first edict in what became known as The Rules. This has been especially difficult as both their houses are on Vossen Manor, the estate of their grandmother, the family's controlling matriarch. Both Sterling's and Ruby's fathers have remarried and Ruby's stepmother and stepsiblings (the Steps) want nothing to do with her. The feeling is mutual, and Ruby hides in her room, climbs out her window, and keeps odd hours to avoid her new family members. At the same time, Ruby's father can't be bothered to pay attention to her, even when she begs to be seen. This makes it feel unsafe to approach him when it appears to Ruby that the Steps may be plotting to inherit the family fortune. With an estranged cousin, overbearing grandmother, and disinterested father, Ruby believes she is the only one who can investigate--and stop--the Steps.

Ruby is a plucky character with a wry sense of humor but there is a lot more to her than gutsiness and intelligence. The loneliness and isolation she experiences in her family is chilling. Her domineering grandmother is "notorious for cutting people out of her life" and manipulating those who remain. After firing all her household help, one by one, she shifts the chores to her family, playing them off one another with imbalanced assignments. She gives easier chores, like watering houseplants and painting nails, to Sterling, and the more unpleasant work, like scooping dog poop and cleaning toilets, to Ruby. Ruby's aunt Katrina has been "erased from the family" and disinherited for not catering to her mother's demands or playing by The Rules. Ruby struggles with a fearful lack of sleep combined with a steady diet of nothing but coffee and Twinkies, which sets her up for an increasingly agitated existence. She also has a darkly comic way of working to keep herself safe: she keeps her "sharky-toothed foldout saw," a hatchet, and a rope under her bed (next to bulk boxes of Twinkies).

The Steps's text is filled with dramatic sensory description: wind "howling like an angry ghost"; a "monster pine tree... scratching at my bedroom window." The visual and aural landscape is cinematic at times, especially in some of the more terrifying moments: the room gets smoky, and flames lick "through the pine needles, sputtering and crackling, gaining speed and heat." Intense, fast-paced scenes that have Ruby scrambling out of (or into) windows, racing to give or get information, and battling a crazed Step can increase the heartrate, but it's Ruby's sharp-edged wordplay, even in the direst of circumstances, that will surely forge the deepest connections with the lionhearted heroine. For example, upon waking from being drugged and tied up, Ruby remarks: "Real men don't roofie people."

If everyone in Ruby's life was like her diabolically manipulative and cruel extended family, The Steps would be almost unbearable to read. But the thrillingly beastly characters are balanced by people like Detective Raven (aka Nevermore), Aunt Katrina, and the lovable, "dweeby" chess club members, the Chessies. Ruby is desperate to connect with trustworthy people, and connect she does, with humor and care and a little bit of vulnerability. Readers who have felt abandoned, alone, or singled out will likely relate, even if their lives aren't quite so chock-full of high drama. The ultimate consequences for the greediness of certain members of the Vossen family are satisfyingly devastating, but no one has won when the dust settles, and perhaps that is Van Draanen's most trenchant point. Ruby will be all right because she is strong and because she has a few very good people in her life. But she will never not have a family that cared more for what they could get--things, money, power--than what they already had: love.

Van Draanen has had a long and illustrious career in writing books about breaking rules, solving mysteries, and being brave. Many of her titles are funny. But every book she writes is, above all else, full of heart. The Steps incorporates all these qualities, blended into one humdinger of a mystery. Readers--especially those who enjoy Jennifer Lynn Barnes's Inheritance Game series or Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson's The Agathas--will likely find Ruby irresistible. --Emilie Coulter

Wendelin Van Draanen

Wendelin Van Draanen is the author of more than 30 books for kids and young adults, including the Edgar-winning Sammy Keyes series and her highly acclaimed young-teen romantic comedy, Flipped. The Steps (Holiday House, September 2) is both a heart-thumping mystery and a sensitive glimpse into the misery of living in a family that values money and power over love and connection. She chatted with Shelf Awareness about her jigsaw-puzzle approach to mystery writing, being a child spy, and her genuine love for the characters she creates.

You've talked about mystery books being like puzzles you enjoy putting together. The Steps is so twisty-turny; did you work out many of the details ahead of time or did plot points unfold as you went along?

I definitely like to have the framework of a mystery worked out before I begin writing. I do approach it like a jigsaw puzzle--I get the frame of it done and then puzzle together the scenes within. The core theme of The Steps is the destructive consequences of greed. Having that in mind helped me construct the main plot and subplots. Still, certain aspects of a story can take time to piece together and can change in the writing and especially the revision process. Sometimes pieces just don't fit, which means finding others that do. And often minor characters will take on a life of their own--something I really enjoy--but their actions or personality can change the flow, and even the direction, of a scene, which can impact the entire story.

What was your writing process as far as keeping track of all the story elements and shifting allegiances?

Maybe I shouldn't confess this, but it was mostly an in-my-head sort of experience. I really submerge myself in a story when I write, so it becomes part of my brainscape for the duration. And since I'm completely immersed, the unfolding of plot and the evolution of characters is easy to remember. That said, I have found it to be very valuable to keep a printed calendar with basic events noted in the squares. It's no fun to be in the revision process and realize you've got an extra day in a week!

Were there any surprises for you as you wrote this book?

Surprises are the fun part! I love the way characters grow into themselves as a story unfolds. For The Steps, the Chessies really came to life, and I grew to absolutely love them. And Ruby having "tools" under her bed? A hatchet, a saw, and a rope? Really? And then the Twinkies came out of nowhere. There they were, stashed under the bed, and it was just so perfectly her. I knew when those appeared that Ruby Vossen was someone I was going to have a great time with.

Ruby's home life is wretched! Her family is "decidedly duplicitous" and greedy, and The Steps is a much darker novel than many of your previous books. What was your impetus for writing about such villainous characters and diabolical behavior?

There's always a little therapy in the stories I write. I've seen firsthand and through the experiences of close friends how disagreements about money can destroy relationships. It's so sad, and very dark. With The Steps I'm hoping readers will take stock of what's truly important in their lives. Is it the stuff? Status? How we measure up to others? Or, as Ruby concludes, is having people in your life who are willing to stand up for you and stand by you worth more than all the "stuff" combined?

Ruby herself is smart and often hilarious, and her relationships with the Chessies (her sweet, "dweeby" chess club pals), her aunt, and the police detective she calls Nevermore are delightful. How did Ruby emerge from your imagination?

Ruby's evolution began with the very real and common issue of teens feeling isolated, misunderstood, or alone--something that's totally exacerbated by social media. I wanted to make the reader experiencing similar emotions feel seen and understood. I also wanted to give them courage and strength as they witnessed Ruby rally against those feelings and the dark forces that surround her. Ruby does have coping mechanisms from a therapist, but she also has humor, which is a great counterbalance and makes her so much fun to spend time with. I'm hoping my readers will grow to love her the way I have.

Chess is a refuge for Ruby and the other "Chessies." Did you have a similar safe place in adolescence?

My favorite refuge was reading. My parents were immigrants, and we were very family-centric, so escaping my brothers or the lonely feeling I often had meant holing up in a quiet corner (usually a closet) or climbing into the tree fort in our yard to read.

This novel features a lot of sneaking around through windows and hiding evidence and writing secret notes. Were you a fan of Nancy Drew and Harriet the Spy in your childhood?

Absolutely, yes, I was. But I was also someone who climbed out of windows myself and did... sneaky stuff. When I was a kid, spying on people in the neighborhood was a regular thing. Kind of a sport. It could really get the heart pumping! It could also get you into major trouble.

What are you excited about now, be it a writing project, a new puppy, a great brownie recipe, or...?

My vegetable garden is exploding right now. I'm like Cai, the cabbage merchant of the Earth Kingdom in Avatar. It's comical, actually. Cabbages, anyone? Also, the arms of the avocado tree up the hill are drooping with green gold. I'm told the tree is over 50 years old, and I've named it the Goddess because it's definitely a wonder of nature.

I'm also very excited about the YA romantasy I'm writing. I'm keeping the title to myself for now (which is hard), but the revision process is going well, and Holiday House will publish it in fall 2026. It's a story I've been imagining for over a decade, so to have it finally coming to life is very satisfying. --Emilie Coulter