With her grandmother’s fortune now gone and her recently deceased grandfather rumored to have been insane, Hattie worries about her family’s future. However, she makes a terrible error in judgment when she hides a tax collection notice marked “overdue” from her grandmother; she thinks she will be able to solve the problem by deciphering a coded message from her grandfather that she hopes will lead to treasure. Clever Hattie does decode the message, but in the end she must come up with more realistic ways to help. Clark delivers a taut, engaging story, balancing plot with a first-person narration that conveys Hattie’s depth of emotion and her practical, problem solving nature. Readers will look forward to the hinted at next book as Hattie at the end attempts to take charge of the new life she faces.

All of society have dark, unmentionable secrets,” grandmother tells Hattie Belle Basket, whose father has placed her in grandmother’s care. Hattie feels like a hawk blown off course living with Hortensia Holmes Greymoor after her wild rafting adventure in the previous Hattie outing, Hill Hawk Hattie. However, the gumption learned from her logger father pays off when Hattie has to survive in the genteel society Mrs. Greymoor inhabits. As in any close social circle, rumors and gossip abound, some connected to the mysteries in Hattie’s own life: What exactly was wrong with her now dead mother? What’s the mystery behind her grandfather’s disappearance? Was he murdered and buried in the garden? Hattie will have to prove that she’s a hawk that doesn’t falter even when in a storm, as she deals with the protocol of polite society. With rich description prose and solid characterization, Clark successfully develops a hugely satisfying mystery and family story with a perfect ending. (Fiction 9-13) Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Tough, conflicted, wry, and introspective, Hattie is an ideal character to connect readers to the history. . .With beautiful, rhythmic sentences, the simple first-person narrative captures Hattie’s rustic innocence, the thrilling rafting adventure, and the heartfelt struggle of a tough girl who feels useful to her father only in the role of a boy.

Clark’s novel will appeal to a wide audience of both male and female readers seeking adventure and history.

We are astonished at Hattie’s courage as she helps raft down the Delaware River, and we follow the struggles of Hattie and her father as they try to come to terms with themselves and each other. Told with a frequent hint of humor. . .this is a remarkable picture of an interesting time and place in American history.