Here is a funny middle-grade mystery from a bright new fiction talent.

Things in the New England town of Ashcrumb are getting weird. Or just weirder. Misty Gordon, whose antique-dealing parents drive a van that says “D.E.A.D.” on the side (for “Deceased’s Estate and Antique Dealer”), is accustomed to weird.

One day, when accompanying her father to the estate of a recently departed clairvoyant, Misty discovers a notebook and a pair of eyeglasses that enable her to see ghosts! And solve mysteries. With the help of her new powers and her best friend, Yoshi, Misty learns that her hometown was settled not by respectable colonists but by pirates! And the ghosts of the pirates are returning to reclaim a dangerous, powerful treasure they lost centuries ago. Who will find it first, Misty or the pirates?

Kim Kennedy has collaborated on a number of popular picture books with her brother, Doug, including Pirate Pete (which Booklist called “appealing, richly colored”), Pirate Pete’s Giant Adventure, Pirate Pete’s Talk Like a Pirate, and Hee-Haw-Dini and the Great Zambini. This is her first novel. She lives in Monroe, Louisiana.