THE STRANGERS

A page-turning new middle-grade trilogy—sold in a mid-7-figure, 6-book deal in a 6-publisher auction, from
The New York Times bestselling author who's sold more than 15 million copies of her work in the US alone—
that will be the centerpiece of the HarperCollins middle-grade list.

The three Greystone kids—Finn, Emma, and Chess—arrive home from school one day to find their mother staring at a disturbing news report: Three siblings have just been kidnapped, several states away. And, oddly, those kids have exactly the same first names, middle names, and birthdays as the Greystones.

At first, for Finn, a happy-go-lucky eight-year-old, the news is just an obstacle to his main objective: getting his after-school snack. Emma, a ten-year-old who loves math, wants to think only about the odds and probability. But for Chess, a quiet twelve-year-old, it brings back memories of another day of awful news: the day the
children's father died, a day the other two kids were too young to remember.

And it's Chess who overhears his mother late that night on the phone telling someone, “If you don't fix this, I will.” The next morning, she hurries off to an unexpected business trip. Mom's last words to Chess before she goes are, “Don't forget anything.”

A seemingly routine stop at the Greystone house to pick up their clothes and take care of the family cat leads all four kids into a mystery that involves bizarre texts, secret messages written in code—and a hidden room that just might be a portal into an alternate world.