Dianne K. Salerni
DIANNE K. SALERNI is the author of several middle grade novels, including Junior Library Guild Selections Jadie in Five Dimensions, and The Carrefour Curse, as well as the state award nominated Eighth Day series. Her latest book, The Tontine Caper, described as Clue meets Knives Out for the younger set, is also a Junior Library Guild Selection delightfully illustrated by Matt Schu. Dianne was a Pennsylvania public school teacher for 25 years before leaving the profession to spend time hanging around creepy cemeteries and climbing 2000 year-old pyramids in the name of book research.
The Tontine Caper
Eleven year-old Nico Lombardi has been unfairly indentured at a remote mountain inn for five years. As he begins to plot an escape, the inn gets booked by the remaining members of a “tontine,” in which a cash prize is awarded to whomever lives the longest. Every guest wants access to the fortune. Some, by any means possible. Nefarious shenanigans begin on the first night, and Nico watches in horror as comically disastrous events unfold: stolen sherry, misplaced eyebrows, mysteriously locked and unlocked doors. One can only imagine what a person might do for $150,000. Including Nico himself.