Lantern and Key Bureau

Real codes. Real mysteries. Crack the case before Wren does.

In a small town on the coast of Maine, twelve-year-old Wren Calloway learns her grandfather was never just a retired professor — he was an agent of The Lantern & Key Bureau, a secret society of codebreakers that went underground almost a century ago. Now Wren and her friend Theo are recruits, and every case turns on a cipher only they can crack. These are cipher mysteries where the puzzles are real. Morse, Caesar shifts, Vigenère, and more are woven right into the story — taught before they're tested, with every answer in the back so a reader can never get truly stuck. Solve them before Wren does, collect the secret words, and earn your own Junior Agent certificate. Atmospheric, brainy, and hard to put down — for ages 9–12 and every grown-up who ever kept a secret code.