• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

This time the trio is in historic Barkerville, a gold rush town with a secret.

Rusty, Katie and Sheila are sent out of town with Rusty's grandparents to keep them out of trouble. After witnessing what they take to be a ghost in the night, the three friends find themselves involved in a mystery from the past that seems to have a few other people interested as well. New information has come to light about a fortune in missing gold, a centuries-old curse and a missing miner. While the three budding detectives try and figure out which of the aging prospectors they keep running into is actually a ghost, they find they are in a race against time to recover the gold and return it to its rightful owners to avert a tragedy. Will they find the gold in time? Or will they suffer the fate of Three Finger Evans, the missing miner?

Dayle Campbell Gaetz grew up in Victoria and attended the University of Victoria. She has always loved books, both reading and writing them. Her writing career began on Salt Spring Island where she wrote her first 16 novels. For several years she wrote a column for the local weekly newspaper and published the occasional article in children's magazines. Dayle now lives in Campbell River, British Columbia where, in addition to her own writing, she teaches a correspondence course on Writing for Children and Teenagers. She has published 21 books for readers from ages seven to 17. Never knowing what idea will strike next, Dayle writes books that range from science fiction to history and from biography to mystery.

Thanks to a strong interest in British Columbian history, she wrote two historical novels that take place in B.C.'s early days. On the heels of those books came Mystery From History and Barkerville Gold, both with historical connections. She had meant to end there, but the three young characters refused quit at Barkerville. They have since travelled on to Alberta, (Alberta Alibi) and recently into Saskatchewan (Something Suspicious in Saskatchewan). Manitoba is calling to them next and it seems wherever they go the children trip over mystery and tumble into danger.

Dayle's other books from Orca include Sea Dog (Currents), the story of two lonely people, a seven year old boy and an old man who are brought together by their love of one dog. At the other end of childhood is No Problem (Soundings), where a 17 year old boy stands on the brink of drug abuse. In between is an Orca Currents, Spoiled Rotten, about an outdoors-loving 14 year old girl who needs to deal with a new stepsister who really is spoiled rotten.

For more information about Dayle, visit http://web.mac.com/gdgaetz.

Dayle Campbell Gaetz's profile page