Introducing The Kindness Chain
A new middle-grade mystery from Tara Hornsby
There's a particular kind of kid who notices everything and says almost nothing about it — the one on the edge of the playground with a book, or a notebook, watching the world go by and quietly cataloguing it. I've always had a soft spot for that kid. I think a lot of us were that kid, once.
The Kindness Chain is her story.
What it's about
Bea Fenwick notices everything. She just isn't used to being noticed back.
When a mysterious wave of kindness starts sweeping through Cobble Bay Primary — a mended bike chain here, a washed and folded jumper there, notes pinned to the noticeboard that simply say Pass it on — the whole school wants to know who's behind it. Bea wants to know more than anyone. Solving it would mean, for once, being the one people looked at instead of past.
But the deeper she digs, the more she realises this isn't a mystery meant to be solved out loud — and that being right might cost her the one friendship, and the one person, that matter most.
Where the idea came from
I wanted to write a mystery where the "crime" being investigated was something good — where the tension doesn't come from a villain, but from the very human temptation to turn a lovely, quiet thing into a trophy. Bea isn't unkind. She's just been invisible long enough that being seen starts to matter more to her than it should, and watching her untangle that felt like a story worth telling for readers who've ever felt the same pull.
It's also, underneath the mystery-plot fun of suspect boards and stakeouts and one spectacularly backfiring sting operation, a book about a very simple idea: that the best things people do for each other rarely come with a name attached — and that finding out who isn't always the point.
A little taste
Bea Fenwick saw the whole thing from the low wall by the bike sheds, and nobody saw her seeing it.
It was twenty past eight, the kind of grey Tuesday morning when the sea mist hadn't decided yet whether to burn off or turn to rain, and the playground at Cobble Bay Primary was doing what it always did before the bell: filling up in clumps, everyone finding their people. Bea wasn't looking for hers.
Coming soon
The Kindness Chain is heading toward release — cover, formatting, and listing details to follow shortly. If you enjoyed The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter, this one's a little different in shape — no selkies this time, just an ordinary school, an extraordinary mystery, and a girl learning that the bravest kindness is the kind nobody thanks you for.
Enjoyed this piece?
Get the next one in your inbox, every other Friday.
