July 2025 Middle Grade Book Selection | First Editions Club

New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (July 29, 2025)

First Edition. Signed.

As new in dust jacket.

For fans of Beth Lincoln’s The Swifts and Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Greystone Secrets series comes an exciting mystery filled with cryptic clues and wonderful word puzzles as two cousins search for their grandmother’s missing portrait.

Twelve-year-old Bea from Passaic, New Jersey, is visiting her family in Paris for the summer when her grandmother’s most precious heirloom—a drawing by Henri Matisse—goes missing. After a cryptic clue arrives on Bea’s doorstep suggesting its whereabouts, Bea is determined to pursue the lead.

Without the French skills to navigate her way around the landmarks of Paris, she teams up with her cousin, Céline, whose clear-eyed French directness makes her a perfect partner for curious, problem-solving Bea. The girls embark on a city-wide search, deciphering riddles, solving puzzles, and cracking codes as they try to locate the Matisse, find a thief, and identify their mysterious benefactor.

Jo Beckett-King is the author of the Bea Bellerose Mystery series. Originally from the north of England, she spent several years in Paris after graduating from university. Following several recent years in New York, she now lives with her husband in San Francisco, where she writes and works as a French-to-English translator. In addition to her middle grade fiction, Jo writes for adults; her short stories have been listed for the Bridport Prize and the Bristol Short Story Prize in the UK.