Middle Grade Books

Ever since reading Nancy Drew books as a little girl, I have always loved reading mysteries and spy novels in particular. I spent hours researching spies, especially ones undercover. Imagine how excited I was as an attorney to represent clients being questioned by the FBI during an investigation. The FBI’s office was a few floors below our firm’s office and one of the attorneys I worked with left to become an agent. Of course, as a litigator, I handled many types of cases. One of my favorite cases involved a man who led a double life. 

 

In 2020, I read a news article about a professor at Harvard University who had been arrested for selling secrets to another country.  I wondered whether other spies were living in our country and after researching learned about an FBI investigation called Operation Ghost Stories that led to the arrest of ten foreign agents in 2010 who had been posing as everyday Americans. 

 

These articles inspired me to write a middle-grade novel called The Neighbors’ Secret about a 12-year-old girl–Maddie Braverman–who sees something that makes her believe her new neighbors are spies. Being a feminist, I chose to include information about a female agent known only as Agent 355 who helped the Colonists win the American Revolution. I also drew from the experiences I had in my legal cases.

 

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