An Ordinary Mystery Series

Welcome to Ordinary. Anne Hambaugh has—along with her family—relocated from the exciting metropolis of London, England, to the small, semi-secluded town of Ordinary, the ancestral home of her father's family. An aspiring journalist, the resourceful teen unexpectedly finds herself—and her new friends—involved in a mystery of murder, mayhem, and stolen jewels. Several suspects materialize during her investigation but the question of who is behind it all remains elusive.  Is it the former Senator?  His English butler?  The wife of the Chief of Police?  Or is it, perhaps, the shotgun-wielding watchman at the old mill north of town? Will Anne be able to solve the mystery before it is too late for her and her friends?

A journal found in an abandoned, cream-colored, 1934 Studebaker President roadster has Anne Hambaugh—our youthful investigative journalist with the Ordinary Outlook—and her friends off on a new mystery. Written by a woman in late June 1943, the journal tells of her return to Ordinary to recover a stolen top-secret government object vital to the war effort. An unfriendly government desperately wants it and will do whatever it takes to obtain it. Her source has been eliminated only minutes before their rendezvous and it is now up to Anja Matthaus—aka: Ann Matthews—to piece together the puzzle to recover the pilfered property. But she quickly learns that she is not the only one seeking it.  Is this person a friend, or foe? Her mission takes an unpleasant twist as it nears completion. Sixty-seven years later, the job falls to Anne to solve the mystery surrounding Anja Matthaus. But there is more to it, Anne soon discovers. There is also the matter of mending the broken heart of a girl from decades before, closing a missing person cold case, and recovering a hidden treasure. Lurking in the shadows is another who wants to reap the financial reward, and who will stop at nothing to get it. This could end very badly for Anne and her friends.

Pirates on Lake Ordinary? Anne Hambaugh, the young investigative journalist with the Ordinary Outlook, is relaxing after her last mystery when another is dropped in her lap: a ghost was seen at the Macleod Manor House. An imposing structure of sixteenth century Scottish architecture, it was the ancestral home of a very wealthy—and, reputedly, a very cantankerous—Scottish sea captain named Angus MacLeod. He had had the massive structure shipped, stone by stone, to a remote location on a bluff overlooking beautiful Lake Ordinary. Why he had left Scotland was shrouded in mystery, though there were plenty of theories. To add further to the tale was the mysterious disappearance of Captain MacLeod and Eleanor, his young bride. Could it be related to the curse on a stolen jewel-encrusted gold statuette of the Aztec goddess Tlaltecuhtli—the one who gives and devours life? And, of course, there was the question as to what had become of his fortune. Danger follows Anne and her companions as they work through the clues.

In this fourth installment of An Ordinary Mystery series, Anne Hambaugh comes upon an old family journal that raises questions about Ordinary's early days: about the town's first murder, about valuables gone missing on the journey from the Old Country, and about the presumed guilt of one man and the blacklisting of a founding family. In looking into Ordinary's past, perilous things happen to Anne, her family and friends, in Ordinary's present.   And so begins her latest mystery … to solve Ordinary's first mysteries from 1793!   On the very day that seventeen-year-old Anne Hambaugh gets her driver license she is all but run off the narrow, winding road to the town of Ordinary. It is soon learned that the criminal mastermind from her first mystery is on the loose. Was he behind the steering wheel? Is he the enigmatic dark-haired and bearded stranger behind present day misdeeds? Or is there someone else involved? And … is there a connection between past and present?   Will Anne be able to solve these questions before anyone gets seriously injured? Or worse?