The story is made up of three separate parts. 

1. Brodie's relationship with her ex, Levi Sawyer and her old best friend, Elliot Maddon.
2. The Dead Letter Room of the Post Office where, years ago, they discovered a number of letters that had never been delivered or claimed. This sparks a mystery begging to be solved.
3. The missing Adder Stone. 

The history behind the stone is interesting. 

When horses were the main form of transport, a Pony Express rider stopped near a spring for a drink, when he noticed a peculiar looking stone in the water. Completely spherical with a hole in the centre, he picked it up and realised it was the magical Adder Stone. 

Later, his horse was spooked by a rattlesnake, which bit him when he was thrown from his horse. Knowing he was about to die, he hurriedly wrote a letter to his wife. 

Turns out, he didn't die and he put this down to the Adder Stone. 

He wore the Adder Stone which he had set into a gold ring. Later, he became the mayor of Warwick and he and his wife had a prosperous life, until he expired at the age of one hundred.

After this death his wife wore the ring and later she begged someone to remove the ring from her finger, so she could die in peace. The ring was handed down through several generations, until it was donated to the town and put on display in the Town Hall... and insured for several million dollars. 

The ring went missing on the evening before Brodie and her father left town for the last time.That was when her mother died. 

Brodie's dad frequently works away from home for a major record company. He likes to call himself a sound engineer, for several of the recording company's groups while they are on tour. So he is in no position to care for his daughter. and sent her to boarding school. 

Three years later, she was asked to leave the boarding school after she accidentally left a telescope which they use for astronomy, on the roof of the library overnight. After sunrise, the library roof became scorched. 

Having only a backpack holding all her belongings, Brodie took a shortcut from the railway station to her new home, through the local junkyard. She previously had bad history with the junkyard and had been charged with theft. Now the junkyard has unexpectedly high security and she has been caught again. This time for trespass.

On her way home, she has a run in with the law, and after the police released Brodie, she is met by her ex-boyfriend, Levi, who tries to entice her into his car. 

The reader is then introduced to her nan, and Brodie settles into life in Warwick, working at the Post Office and enrolling at the local school. She renews friendships and makes new ones. 

The Dead Letter Office is an important part of her life and she reads and rereads the letter from the writers, June, Winnie and August. There seems to be no trace of any of them. Her friends, Eliott and Levi help her with the detective work as tries to find out more. 

There are extraordinary amount pages dedicated to her life at school, in the neighbouring woods and adjoining lake and her relationship with her friends and their families, until... 

There is a breakthrough in the mystery. 

The story is well written, albeit in the present tense singular, which is unusual and a little off-putting. However, I did get used to this format. Although this is meant to be a mystery story it tends to run more like a drawn out teenage romance novel. 

The author tends to write in staccato sentences in which she has used some very descriptive, if unusual words, that shouldn't fit into the context, but actually work well. This heightens the tension and gives a feeling of excitement, which leads to an enjoyable experience. 

It has a rattling good story line and is well written, but more suitable for young adults. 

I was dismayed by the amount of unfamiliar American words used,. At first, I thought it WAS based in America, but then I came across a number of Australianisms, which I found confusing, not knowing in which continent the story was set. (There have never been any rattlesnakes nor Pony Express riders in Australia) It makes me think that we are slowly losing our Australian culture and language, which cannot be a good thing.

On a positive note, I did not come across a single typo, which is very uncommon lately.

The authors

Lauren Draper grew up in Western Australia and is now a Melbourne-based writer and marketing professional. She is a graduate of RMIT's Professional Writing and Editing program and now works in publishing - she loves nothing more than a story infused with magic, hijinks and a touch of nostalgia.Her debut novel, The Museum of Broken Things, was acquired after it was shortlisted in the 2020 Text Prize, and went on to be shortlisted for The Readings Prize and Indie Book Awards, and longlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year (Older Readers)