A spooky middle grade mystery series from author Justin Owens. Evelyn Cross reads a room the way most people read a page — and the Organization would very much like her to stop.
Justin Owens spends his weekdays teaching middle school math and his evenings building a mythology he can't quite stop excavating. The Evelyn Cross Universe is his middle grade supernatural mystery series — grounded in Catholic demonology, Judas Iscariot lore, and a young protagonist who is autistic-coded, literal, and better at pattern recognition than anyone twice her age.
Book One was co-authored with Miles Reed. Everything since has been Justin working the case alone — which, if you've read far enough into the Organization's file, is exactly how Evelyn would want it.
Riverside Academy has a reputation for producing exceptional students and burying its worst nights. When Evelyn Cross arrives, she isn't looking for a haunting — she's looking for a pattern. What she finds is worse: a building that remembers everything, and an Organization that would rather it forgot.
Decades before Evelyn Cross starts asking questions, the Hartwell family's Victorian fortune was built on something it never fully paid for. Olivia Hartwell just wants to keep the family business running. The house has other plans, and the interest has been compounding for a very long time.
The Organization has a name for the artifacts that shouldn't exist and a filing system for the people who find them anyway. Evelyn Cross just became one of the latter. The Iscariot Binding pulls the thread on a mythology the Church buried on purpose — and Evelyn, being Evelyn, cannot leave a loose thread alone.
A middle-grade mystery with shivers, heart, and a school you wouldn't want to visit after dark.
The Haunting of Riverside Academy
A gripping, atmospheric sequel for fans of occult mysteries featuring bright teenage sleuths.
The Iscariot Binding
A standalone point-and-click case set between Riverside Academy and The Iscariot Binding. No Organization, no spoilers — just Evelyn, her dog Henry, a flashlight, and the real Shanghai Tunnels beneath Old Town Portland. Explore, examine, and find out what's still down there.
Enter the TunnelsA companion blog told from inside the case files — field notes, in her own voice.
Read the blog → NOW LIVEPersonal essays from Book One's co-author — the version of the story that isn't just facts in order.
Read his notes → NOW LIVEGamified math classroom tools, free LEGO lesson templates, and Brick by Brick Learning — from the author's day job.
Visit the educator site →A short, honest newsletter about the series as it's actually written — new chapters, cover reveals, and the occasional piece of lore that didn't make the final cut.
