The Clock Strikes Thirteen

The midnight bell should have chimed twelve. Instead, the Hubell Clock Tower struck thirteen, then fell silent. For most in Riverview, it was an oddity to forget by morning. For seventeen-year-old Penny Parker, it was a question that would not let her rest. Penny lives in her father's newspaper office, raised on ink-stained fingers and the belief that no story is too small to pursue. When the clock keeper is suspiciously replaced and a band of Night Riders begins terrorizing local farmers with threatening notes and burning barns, Penny finds herself juggling two mysteries that begin to bleed together. Who benefits from the fear gripping the community? And what does an impossible clock strike have to do with it? Teaming with her steady friend Louise, she digs into a web of land schemes and intimidation that points to men with power and no conscience. This is Mildred A. Wirt unleashed. After years of writing Nancy Drew under a pseudonym with editorial constraints, Wirt created Penny Parker to be exactly what she wanted: outspoken, daring, and genuinely free. The result is a mystery that crackles with the independence its creator was finally allowed to explore.