. Aiden and Noah are twins, and since their mother disappeared,their father, Roger, moves them from place to place.
Roger is a detective/investigator. Each place the family stay at isn’t for long. Arriving in the town of Herisdell for their father's work, a seeming ghost town as they see no residents driving through to get to their temporary house. Aiden and Noah are told by their father to stay locked up and curtains closed until he returns from finding out more about the job he is to do. Aiden looks out at a window and sees a girl who appears. When the father returns, he takes them to a diner for dinner. Strangely, they find the diner almost empty except. For one man eating by himself. The man leaves shortly. They ask the waiter where everybody is. The waitress tells them that people including students disappear and they don’t come back. No one knows how or why this is happening. That is what Roger has been given the job to solve. Their father has told them to be careful. They also find that they are enrolled to go to school in the morning. Aiden groans as he finds most schools he has attended are behind — he usually already has learned what they are teaching. At school Aiden is correct about the classes. He and Nora are in separate classes. Noah is busy making friends when Aiden finds him for lunch. When Aiden had been going to his first class, he hears crying and decides to check it out. It is a girl who says she needs help and then disappears. Aiden is late for class. In a class Aiden is grabbed by a boy asking him if he has seen his sister. Why? Aiden agrees to take him to the girl he saw after school. What they find when the girl tells them where she can be found is the courtyard of the school. No one goes there as they say it is haunted. They do go to the courtyard and when the boy sees his sister laying on the ground, he cries and blames himself. Who killed his sister? Noah and Aiden become involved in the mystery of the case their father is working. They don’t realize how dangerous it is for them to do this. Will they solve the mystery or will their father?

The author has written how Aiden and Noah are more like their father than they want to be, especially when they are intrigued and set out to solve the primary mystery. The novel is both creepy and intriguing. I loved how the boys got involved especially when they have always not been involved in the earlies cases of their father. It’s a great mystery!

This was a strong start to the Ravens Crux series, it had everything that I was hoping for and enjoyed the overall feel it. It had that young adult element that I was looking for and thought the characters were so well done. Julie Boglisch has a great writing style and can't wait to read more in this series and from Julie Boglisch.

The Raven's Crux" is a compelling narrative filled with suspense, exploration, and surprising turns. The way mystery and the paranormal are deftly woven together by author Julie Boglisch had me gripped from start to finish. I was engrossed in this novel because of its well-developed characters and vividly evocative environment. Reading this book felt like I was watching a detective show since it was so fascinating.

Thank you netgalley and black rose writing for the ARC

This book was tough to get through. It read like a 15 year old had written it, and the language was fine but stilted in some places like the author couldn't decide between being formal or informal. I tried to get into the mystery of it all but I couldn't help but keep thinking of how juvenile it read. This book is labeled as YA but I feel it would be better suited for elementary grade, maybe an audience no older than 5th grade.