Okay, so it’s not exactly the Scooby Gang (for obvious licensing reasons) but Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids draws parallels that simply cannot be denied. The book, which comes out July 11th via Doubleday, follows a group of teenage detectives, and their dog, who put away a criminal only to find out, decades later, that they might have fingered the wrong person. Furthermore, upon revisiting the case, what if they realize that there is no “man behind the mask”, that evil is real, and that they’ll have to face the supernatural?

Synopsis:

It was all over the papers. “Teenage Sleuths Unmask Sleepy Lake Monster.” In the picture the gang (two boys, two girls, and their loveable weimaraner) pose before the old Deboen Mansion on Sleepy Lake in Blyton Hills, OR. All smiles, freckles, and bell-bottoms, they surround a hogtied Mr. Wickley in his salamander costume, his far-fetched criminal scheme foiled. “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids.”

Flash forward. That glorious summer is long gone. And thirteen years of winter have followed. The gang’s grown apart. Adult life hasn’t been kind. One of the boys was institutionalized. The other killed himself. And Andy, their intrepid leader, is growing tired of not facing her demons. Too many things were left unspoken that summer. Not only her feelings for Kerri, the brains of the operation — there are also the relentless nightmares, drawing her back to that notorious night at the mansion.

In MEDDLING KIDS, it’s time to reopen the case, reunite what’s left of the gang, and return to Sleepy Lake. And this time, whether it’s petty villainy or an aeons-old primordial evil, the Blyton Hills Summer Detective Club will once and for all confront their fears face to face.

Cantero, who was the author behind the 2014 Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers debut novel The Supernatural Enhancements, aims to deliver a story that is quick, witty, and delightfully entertaining, especially for all of us who grew up enjoying Scooby Doo.

Pre-orders are available via Amazon.