Shortly before Peter Wilson starts sixth grade, his older brother Randall, aka Mighty, a graffiti artist and budding parkour freerunner, mysteriously disappears. Within days, their mother moves the family from Yonkers, N.Y., to a rental house in historic Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. Around the same time, Myla Rajan, another upcoming Dobbs Ferry sixth grader, buys a necklace at a Yonkers street fair with a sacred Sanskrit "om" symbol on one side and the word "keeper" on the other, setting off a chain of events no one could have predicted.
Peter and Myla's stories begin weaving together even before they become next-door neighbors, but their tentative partnership in solving a nearly decade-old mystery involving murder, stolen diamonds and graffiti has a rocky start while they assess whether they can trust one another. Peter is sure Randall's disappearance is connected to the bigger mystery, and he is desperate to bring his brother home and, if at all possible, to stay in one place long enough actually to feel at home.
Sheela Chari (Vanished) builds an elaborate and thrilling mystery incorporating real New York history, geography and engineering marvels, as well as cultural elements such as tagging and the urban sport of freerunning. In alternating first-person chapters, readers learn how Myla and Peter bond over their shared "difference" of being people of color in a predominantly white town--Myla is Indian-American and Peter is black, Indian, and white--and how both struggle to come to terms with their place in their respective families and community. Readers will be kept guessing until the very end... and enjoy every minute of it. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor