“Hero—that’s my dog’s name.” Of course, this year wouldn’t be any different from any other year. Another year—another new school—but the teasing was never any different. Hero couldn’t care less that she was named after a character in one of Shakespeare’s plays. What she cared about was that the teasing always started before she ever had a chance to make even one friend. By now, she’d given up on school friends. Making friends at school was a complete mystery to her. Instead, she makes friends with Mrs. Roth who lives next door. Mrs. Roth makes her a glass of tea and cinnamon toast everyday after school. Mrs. Roth tells her about the Murphy Diamond. Apparently, the old couple who used to live in Hero’s house had a huge diamond, the size of a walnut and the diamond was set in a necklace made of gold, pearls and rubies and the was over 500 years old. Then the old lady, Mrs. Murphy got sick with cancer and Mr. Murphy wanted her to be part of this experimental treatment. But the treatment was in Mexico and was very expensive. Mysteriously, the Murphy diamond disappeared one day, but nothing else in the house was taken, not even the necklace. The diamond was insured for 1 million dollars, so the police and the insurance agency thought that Mr. Murphy had hidden the diamond to get the money to help his wife. But while the police spent months searching the house, Mrs. Murphy died. The police never found the diamond, Mr. Murphy moved away and Mrs. Roth thinks the diamond is still in Hero’s house hidden somewhere the police would never think to look. Now Hero is dying to find the diamond, but her fmaily keeps getting in the way and getting curious about why Hero keeps staring at the light fixtures. And Danny Cordova (only the most popular boy in 8th grade; Hero’s only in the 6th) keeps hanging around with Mrs. Roth too and he keeps trying to hang out with Hero. But Danny is not to be trusted. His father after all, is the police chief. How is she ever going to find that diamond with all of these people wathcing her so closely!