Dead-End Shortcut (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798189987755)

Your shortcut to a faster commute... just became a one-way trip into the past.

Aiden just wants to make it to first period on time-and avoid the wrath of Mrs. Gable for the third time this week. To him, the crumbling, fog-shrouded Blackwood Cemetery is not a place for eternal rest; it's a massive, grass-covered shortcut that shaves exactly seven minutes and forty-two seconds off his walk.

His best friend, Iain, has always called it a bad idea. Today, he was right.

While cutting through the old, overgrown section of the graveyard, the boys stumble upon a terrifying sight: a man in a tattered, old-fashioned coat, frantically digging up an unmarked grave.

Caught in the act, the grave robber pursues them, but this is no ordinary criminal. Possessing a lantern that casts shadows that move on their own, and moving with inhuman speed, the "Crow-Man" seems tied to the very earth of the cemetery.

Barely escaping with their lives, the boys make a horrifying discovery in the mud: a silver key shaped like a crow, pulsing with a strange, cold energy. It's not just a key; it's a connection. And the Crow-Man will stop at nothing to get it back.

Now, Aiden and Iain are on the run, not from a person, but from a living piece of the town's buried history. To survive, they must unravel the mystery of the Crow-Man, unlock the secret of the Key of Roots, and face the terrifying truth of what lies just beneath the surface of Blackwood Village.

If you love spooky middle-grade adventures like Goosebumps or Small Spaces, don't miss The Aiden Adventures: Dead-End Shortcut. The shortcut to trouble has just opened.