The Freedom Trail Directive follows four friends who uncover a forgotten mystery in the Boston Public Library and must follow clues along Boston’s Freedom Trail to complete a decades-old detective challenge. What draws you to the mystery genre? 

For me, the foundation of The Freedom Trail Directive has always been friendship. The history and mystery are important, of course, but at its heart, this is a story about four best friends sharing an adventure together.

I wanted Maddy, Evelyn, Darnel, and Jin to experience Boston’s history rather than simply learn about it. The mystery gives them a reason to explore, ask questions, and discover the stories behind the places they visit. But it’s their friendship, their different personalities, their conversations, and the excitement of figuring things out together that I hope keeps readers turning the pages.

I also tried to let the historical information come naturally through their discoveries. They’re curious kids, not historians. They don’t always know the answers, and that’s part of the fun. They learn from the places they visit and, just as importantly, from one another.

Ultimately, I wanted readers to come away with a greater appreciation for Boston’s history without ever feeling like they’d been given a lesson. I wanted them to feel like they’d spent the day exploring the city with four good friends. And maybe, when they finish the book, they’ll want to grab a few friends of their own and go discover something about the place they call home.

What was the most challenging clue or puzzle to construct, and did you have to revise it to make sure it worked for middle-grade readers?

Once I decided which stops along the Freedom Trail I wanted to feature in the book, one of my biggest challenges was figuring out how to connect Paul Revere to the Bunker Hill Monument in a way that felt natural to the story.

As it turned out, Boston provided the answer for me.

At that point in the adventure, all four detectives are beginning to question whether they’re even following the right path. They’ve left Copp’s Hill Burying Ground and are making their way toward the Bunker Hill Monument when they come across Paul Revere Park.

The park is a real place in Boston, but in my fictional world, the original Directive Detectives, who began their adventures nearly forty years earlier, helped fund its development.

For Maddy, Evelyn, Darnel, and Jin, discovering that connection is exactly the reassurance they need. They’re still on the right path, and the mystery continues.

I loved how that worked out because I didn’t have to invent a location or force a complicated puzzle into the story. I was able to take a real place, give it a fictional connection to the larger mystery, and let the kids discover its significance for themselves.

That’s really the approach I tried to take throughout the book. The clues needed to be challenging enough to keep readers curious, but accessible enough that they could make the connections alongside the characters. And sometimes, the best clues were already waiting for me in Boston.

What do you hope young readers remember most after finishing The Freedom Trail Directive?

More than anything, I hope young readers come away understanding that history isn’t just a collection of facts and dates we’re expected to memorize. It’s all around us, and we’re all connected to it.

The Freedom Trail is a perfect example. It’s so much more than a red line through Boston or a series of historic stops along the way. It’s the story of a city, the people who lived there, the choices they made, and the role they played in shaping the beginning of our country.

That’s what I wanted Maddy, Evelyn, Darnel, and Jin to discover, and it’s what I hope readers take away from their adventure.

But I also hope the book inspires something beyond Boston. I want kids to look at their own towns and cities a little differently. To wonder about the buildings they pass, the streets they walk, and the people who came before them. To ask questions, explore with their friends, and realize that every community has stories worth discovering.

If a young reader finishes The Freedom Trail Directive and becomes a little more curious about the world around them, then I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.

Because history doesn’t belong only to historians, museums, or textbooks.

History belongs to all of us.

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