Books like Twelve Minutes to Midnight

The title and cover of this book caught my eye while cruising through the library today. While I normally don't read children's books, this one certainly caught my eye and I'm glad that I read it. The plot of Twelve Minutes to Midnight is rather original. A young girl, Penelope, is a writer but she must keep it a secret as the story takes place during a day and age when female authors were rather uncommon and frowned upon. Not only is Penny a writer (and publisher), she also gets caught up in a mysterious investigation involving inmates of an asylum who are writing mysterious phrases at 12 minutes to midnight. Penny sets out to solve the mystery, with the help of a few of her friends. While the storyline seems relatively predictable at first, I can guarantee you that there will still be some plot twists and that you will realize by the end, that the author thought the story out way more than seems apparent at the beginning. I definitely enjoyed this thriller for kids as it wasn't too intense and scary, yet it still held some good intrigue and edge-of-your-seat moments.Edge writes in a style that meshes nicely with this type of story. He writes in a manner that is suspenseful, without being too scary or intimidating. His writing is also easy to read and understand. Another aspect that I liked about his writing style is that he doesn't hesitate to use a few words that kids might not be as familiar with, yet it was easy to tell within the context what the words meant.I would definitely recommend this book to those with kids ages 9+ who are looking for a good mystery, especially one that is set in the past, yet still relates to the future. After reading this book, I might just have to check out the next book in the series.