Overview
Riverdale meets The Queen’s Gambit in this fun, twisty thriller by an Edgar Award-winning author, featuring a deliciously dysfunctional family with dark secrets and shifting alliances. Fourteen-year-old chess whiz Ruby Vossen tries to keep to herself. She refuses to be a pawn in her wealthy family’s web of deception. But ever since Ruby’s mother and aunt died in a car wreck, the battle lines drawn within the Vossen clan have ruled her life. Ruby’s father and uncle became irreparably estranged, and within months, Ruby’s cousin/BFF was banished from her life, her father remarried, and she wound up with a gold-digging stepmom who has two teens of her own—The Steps. So when strange and dangerous things begin happening on the Vossen estate, Ruby sees only one logical explanation: The Steps are scheming to inherit the Vossen fortune. And as things get more and more intense, it seems like killing is in their playbook. Luckily, Ruby has her own playbook, and she’s not about to go down without a fight. She’ll even break her dad’s rules to get her cousin back on her side of the chessboard . . . It’s time to check-mate The Steps before they can finish the Vossens off. Secrets, lies, and lethal threats abound in this clever, quirky thriller by the award-winning, bestselling author of Flipped and the Sammy Keyes mysteries. A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Year
Full Product Details
Author: Wendelin Van Draanen
Publisher: Holiday House Inc
Imprint: Holiday House Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 14.80cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 21.60cm
Weight: 0.352kg
ISBN: 9780823460380
ISBN 10: 082346038
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 02 September 2025
Recommended Age: From 12 years
Audience:
Young adult
,
Teenage / Young adult
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Van Draanen (Mr. Whiskers and the Shenanigan Sisters) skillfully employs chess metaphors while piling on the twists in this campy caper. The cousins’ friendship—both with each other and the connections they make throughout their investigation —is a heartfelt counter-point to the Vossens’ despicable familial relationships and tumultuous history. —Publishers Weekly
Van Draanen (Mr. Whiskers and the Shenanigan Sisters) skillfully employs chess metaphors while piling on the twists in this campy caper. The cousins’ friendship—both with each other and the connections they make throughout their investigation —is a heartfelt counter-point to the Vossens’ despicable familial relationships and tumultuous history. —Publishers Weekly Plenty of welcome heart is built into this whodunit that imagines a wealthy, backstabbing family that’s so stereotypically horrible that they tip toward the darkly comic. A fun, twisty mystery with a likeable narrator. —Kirkus Reviews This work finds its groove as a cross between a cozy mystery and a YA thriller with a dash of quirkiness in the form of its chess-obsessed protagonist, making for a somewhat lighter, but nevertheless engrossing, read. Ruby is a plucky, resilient protagonist who is easy to root for when surrounded by a family of ne’er-do-wells. —Booklist
Author Information
Wendelin Van Draanen is the award-winning, bestselling author of more than thirty novels for kids and teens. Her books include Flipped, which was named a Top 100 Children’s Novel for the 21st Century by SLJ and became a Warner Brothers feature film, the Edgar Award-winning Sammy Keyes mystery series, and The Running Dream, which won ALA’s Schneider Family Book award. A high school teacher for fifteen years, Wendelin is now a full time writer who enjoys staying active in the school author-visit space.
