Ghosts Don't Use Blueprints: A Jenna McGregor Origin Story (Jenna McGregor Mystery Series)

Before the café.
Before the mysteries.
Before Jenna McGregor knew Maple Grove was built on secrets.

Sixteen-year-old Jenna McGregor never meant to start a mystery.

All she did was bump into the school trophy case.

But the next morning… it had moved.

At Maple Grove High, the trophy case has been bolted to the wall for decades. Everyone knows that. Teachers say it’s always been there. The janitor insists nothing changed.

But Jenna knows what she saw.

When the case shifts again—and a championship trophy disappears—Jenna and her best friend Lisa begin asking questions the town would rather leave alone.

What starts as a hallway accident quickly spirals into something much

Hidden seams in the walls.
Late-night break-ins.
Rumors of secret corridors beneath the school.
And a mysterious figure in a letterman jacket who appears… and vanishes.

With the help of future football captain Joe Carter and the observant Dan Harper, Jenna begins uncovering a secret Maple Grove has spent years carefully hiding.

Because some things aren’t lost.

They’re buried.

And someone will do anything to keep them that way.

The mystery that started everything.This suspenseful prequel novella reveals the first case that set Jenna McGregor on the path to becoming Maple Grove’s most unlikely amateur sleuth.

Perfect for readers who

✔ Cozy mysteries
✔ Small-town secrets
✔ Amateur detectives
✔ Hidden passageways and buried history
✔ Found-family sleuthing teams
✔ A touch of nostalgic Scooby-Doo-style adventure

New to the Jenna McGregor Mysteries? Start here.

This prequel can be enjoyed before or after the main series and reveals the moment Jenna first learns that Maple Grove doesn’t just keep secrets…

It builds them into the walls.

Continue Jenna’s story in the Jenna McGregor Mystery Series. After this first mystery, Jenna grows up to open Brewed Awakenings Café, where trouble has a way of showing up with the morning coffee.