Each book in the Crime Through Time series is hosted by a different child member of the famous Fitzmorgan detective family. While the young sleuth unravels a fictional mystery, readers learn about the real historical setting and actual crime-solving methods from the different eras. In sidebar activities, readers take on the role of assistant, helping to crack the case. Breathtakingly suspenseful but never violent and always age-appropriate, the books read like private investigative journals, with photos, maps, news clippings and crime scene sketches.

In book 5, set in 2007, Nick Fitzmorgan unexpectedly returns home early from detective training camp, only to find his screenwriter father vanished and the house in disarray. The house isn't just messy, though: it's carefully set up with clues that will lead Nick all the way to Everest, and his father's rescue.