We first meet our hero fifteen-year-old Nate Daniels when he and and friend are pulled over by the police for joy-riding in a neighbors car. His parents are rightfully upset with his irresponsibility and decide to send him to spend the summer with his grandparents in rural North Carolina. Nate is expecting to spend a boring summer. He isn't expecting terrorists and a family mystery.When Nate flies down from Boston, his plane is detained and searched by Homeland Security. A suspected terrorist is on-board. Nate and a couple of other kids are released to the custody of those waiting for them. Nate gets home and finds that someone has slipped a USB into the pocket of his hoodie. He also finds that the farm that has been in his family since before the Civil War is an antebellum mansion complete with a ghost and a mystery. Was his ancestor a black slave-owner or was he secretly a stop on the Underground Railroad?When the terrorist, who convinces Nate that he is really an undercover agent who has information about a traitor in our government, comes to Nate to retrieve his flash drive, Nate believes him and decides to help him get to the Pentagon. He enlists his two new friends from the airplane—fifteen-year-old twins Hannah and Will—to help him. They are children of a soldier who died fighting the Taliban.The story is filled with exciting scenes as Nate has an encounter with a bear, searches for secret passages in his house, and has to elude the army and Homeland Security as they search for Abdi. I think that middle graders will like the excitement and will like the friendships and tentative romance in this story. The characters are well-written and likable. Nate begins the story a little spoiled and convinced that charm will get him out of any trouble but he has a good heart and courage too. I liked his relationship with his grandparents who have secrets of their own.I recommend this fast-paced for mystery and adventure lovers who will also learn a little history as they read this exciting story.
