The Curse of Hemlock Island
Iris Blackwood is twelve, sharp, and almost always right. Someone just threw her into a wooden crate and dropped it in a river.
The case that started everything.
Iris Blackwood is twelve years old, lives on Saint Hyde Island (near Jekyll) off the Georgia coast, and keeps a Detective Notepad filled with rules she's learned through hard experience. She is sharp, occasionally bossy, and almost always right. She's also just been thrown into a wooden crate and dropped in a river by someone who doesn't want her on Hemlock Island.
The Curse of Hemlock Island is the first book in the Iris Blackwood Mystery Adventures, an interactive detective fiction where you choose what Iris does next. Follow a lead or explore the island? Trust the stranger or keep your distance? Every path leads somewhere different, and not every ending solves the case.
27 different endings. Five achievement levels, from Junior Investigator to Super Sleuth. A mystery that rewards rereading. The path you didn't take is always waiting.
For readers ages 10–13 who are ready for a protagonist who models sharp thinking and puts them in charge of the investigation.
“An ambitious, likable young detective headlines this new series that shows potential.”
Prevost invites readers to help a young sleuth investigate an island full of mysteries in this interactive middle-grade novella.
From the first page, Iris Blackwood is already in peril, stuck inside a crate floating down the Nargansuckett River; readers decide what she’ll do and where she’ll go, in the style of a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Iris wants to make it to Hemlock Island, which may or may not be near her home island of Saint Hyde. All sorts of possibilities await on Hemlock, from criminal activity to whatever the enigmatic Island People are up to; are they tied in some way to the reputedly haunted candy factory that Iris looks into? And just who is the Chosen One? Clearly, Iris, who gets a helping hand and paw from her younger brother, Theo, and their dog, Dash, has mysteries to solve and a bevy of choices to make. Prevost’s story kicks off a series of books featuring Iris the amateur detective. In this installment, she often finds herself in precarious situations; the various narrative paths lead to dubious people, hints of the supernatural, or the very real chance she’ll land in hot water with her mother. (“‘No more funny business,’ says Iris’s Mom, and this time, she means it.”) The book has nearly 30 endings that readers can reach, of an unexpected variety—some are ideal outcomes, but others are disappointing (for Iris) or even a touch unsettling. Iris’ interactions with the other characters vary as well; a person who’s nice in one storyline seems more suspicious in another. But Iris’ scenes with Theo (who’s usually accompanied by Dash) are delightful; she repeatedly reminds Theo of her “Book of Rules”: specifically, the first rule, which commands her brother to do what she says. Unfortunately, despite the presence of her sleuthing tools (such as a magnifying glass), Iris rarely utilizes her deductive skills and generally stumbles onto solutions instead of puzzling them out.
An ambitious, likable young detective headlines this new series that shows potential.
The book in plain numbers.
Three books. One detective.
Book 4: The Dancing Lighthouse. Fall 2026