Dino Detectives · A story in five cases
Z.G. and the Traveler
Who is Z.G.?
Running through some of the Dino Detectives cases is a mystery that takes more than one book to solve: a buyer who signs only “Z.G.”, speaks through a reed tube, and leaves a trail of paper behind. Each case is solved in its own book, so a reader can start anywhere. Read in order, they add up to one story with an ending.
These are plans in motion and likely to change. Release dates will follow when each book is ready.
The Z.G. cases
Four cases, one trail of paper
Parts 1–4 of 5
Each case is solved by its last page. Z.G. learns something from every one, and so do the detectives.
The Vanished Feather of Calm
On Story Night at the Nestled Nook, the Feather of Calm goes missing. Two kind helpers were talked into a “safety test” that wasn’t one. Voucher leaves, a tiny maker’s mark and a hint of citrus lead the detectives to a buyer who signs only “Z.G.”, and a Return Night brings the Feather home.
Vouchers in the Bazaar Wind
At the Bargain Bazaar, a buyer in gloves gives a different name at every stall. In Guardian Grove, the Root Drum has been swapped for a painted toy. The Drum comes home, and the detectives start asking a new question: not who took it, but what it’s for.
Echoes at Three Trees Meadow
Someone has laid fake trails across Table Rock, and the detectives come close to blaming a young cart-runner. A printer’s curl ties the trails back to the Feather case, and Iggy starts to see what all the missing things have in common.
The Printer’s Flourish
A festival banner arrives with a maker’s mark that isn’t real. The curl of the ink leads to a press shed beyond Boulder Basin, where every mark is read aloud in front of witnesses. No chase, no tricks. By the last page, Z.G. has a name.
How it ends
A repair, not a capture
The Z.G. story ends the way a Dino Detectives case should: with something put right, not someone punished. Then two companion books tell the same story from the side readers never saw. They hold no secrets, so they’re meant to be read last.
The Leaning Light
A thin green light has stood out of the dark on the far horizon every night anyone can remember. Bea is the first to notice that it used to be straight. The last Z.G. case takes the detectives somewhere they’ve never been, with a question nobody can answer alone: what is pulling the light off true?
Routes and Rehearsals
The first three Z.G. cases again, from the inside. Every plan works on paper until a town posts a new rule, and then it has to be rewritten. A caper, not a mystery: the reader always knows more than the planners do.
The Last Good Angle
The fourth case from the inside, told as a countdown to the moment one small piece of paper undoes the whole plan. It’s also where readers finally learn why any of it happened.
More of the roadmap
In development · Longer mysteriesDino Detectives
Ideal for ages 8–12 · Growing readersFive detectives, one case per book, and clues a reader can follow alongside them.
Planned · Illustrated chapter booksThe Echo Stones
Ideal for ages 6–9 · Read together or aloneFourteen hidden stones, two rival teams, and the story of how Concord Crater was found.
Available now · Read-aloud stories