I finished SNOWED during the first year of the pandemic, channeling my inner twelve-year-old. It’s the debut novel in the Phee Mahoney Adventure Mystery series.

Spy aficionada Ophelia (Phee) Mahoney lives in Bristlecone, a small town in the foothills of Denver. Colorado. As if navigating the eighth grade weren’t already tough enough, she gets caught in an avalanche of trouble when she investigates a classmate’s disappearance and a hit-and-run that leaves a friend in a coma. The town’s sheriff, who’s also the father of Phee’s crush, considers the hit-and-run an accident, but Phee thinks something more behind it. Aided by her friends, Jeopardy!-obsessed Joshua and jockette Kimiko, Phee must risk her life to bring justice to her home town.

Phee’s troubles begin on a school ski trip, a trip she’s less than thrilled about. Here’s how her day starts:

The tires skidded as her father sped through the turn. Phee hoped they would crash. Not crash crash; she didn’t want them to die or get hurt or anything. She’d be happy with sliding on a patch of ice and veering into the mounds of snow alongside the road. Just so they stayed stuck long enough for her to miss the field-trip bus.

The wind had come up. Snowflakes blew in every direction, like an explosion at a pillow factory. Phee wished she could vaporize them with her glare. Where was global warming when you needed it?

“Maybe the highway’s closed,” she said. There was only one road between Bristlecone and Silver Mountain Ski Resort.

“No, sweetie. I checked on the computer before we left,” her dad said.

Phee felt her forehead. Was it a little warm? Maybe she was coming down with strep throat. She tried a cough.

“Gross! Germs,” Brooklyn said.

“Germs,” Scout echoed. The twins were five years old and so hyper, Phee sometimes had the impression they were triplets. Their dad was taking them to daycare after he dropped off Phee.

He pulled into the school’s entrance. A bus was idling at the curb in front of the auditorium. With a resigned sigh, Phee got out of the car and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

Today her eighth-grade class was going to Silver Mountain, the local ski area. In a fit of optimism, or maybe temporary insanity, Phee had checked the INTERMEDIATE box on the permission slip. Which is what she’d be if she’d finished the Silver Scooters ski school her parents had enrolled her in when she was seven, instead of deciding she hated skiing the first day and refusing—okay, throwing a tantrum—when they tried to make her go back.

“Don’t forget this,” her dad said. He leaned over and handed her an orange piece of paper with the number 5 on it. Instead of being bussed back to the school, the students were going to be dropped off at central locations around town where their parents would pick them up. Phee would return on Bus 5. Assuming she survived.

“Have fun. Love you,” her dad said. “Brooklyn, leave that seat belt alone.”

“Love you, too,” Phee said, shutting the door on Scout’s wail as Brooklyn snatched her doll. Her dad pulled away from the curb and Phee watched him go, part of her wishing she was going to daycare with the twins. And she’d hated daycare.

As for how things end up, check out SNOWED (September 2024). I hope you enjoy it!

Snowed, A Phee Mahoney Adventure Mystery Book 1
Genre: Middle-Grade Traditional Mystery
Release: September 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Welcome to Bristlecone, Colorado–home of skiing, snowboarding, and secrets.

As if navigating the eighth grade weren’t challenging enough for twelve-year-old spy aficionada Ophelia (Phee) Mahoney, she’s caught in an avalanche of trouble when she investigates a classmate’s disappearance on a school ski trip and a hit-and-run that leaves a friend in a coma.

The town’s sheriff, who’s also the father of Phee’s crush, considers the hit-and-run an accident, but Phee thinks a sinister motive was behind it. Aided by her friends, Jeopardy!-obsessed Joshua and jockette Kimiko, Phee puts her life on the line to bring justice to her home town.

About the author
Twist Phelan is the award-winning author of eleven mystery novels. She also writes short stories, which have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and various anthologies. Accolades for her work include two Thriller Awards and the Arthur Ellis Award, plus multiple nominations for the Thriller, Ellis, Shamus, Anthony, Derringer, Lefty, Canada AofE, and Irish Book Awards. An avid explorer, Twist has traveled to 90 countries, many of which are settings for her writing.