PENNY PARKER is a teen-aged sleuth and amateur reporter with an uncanny knack for solving unusual, sometimes bizarre mysteries. The only daughter of widower Anthony Parker, publisher of the "Riverview Star," Penny is self-sufficient, outspoken, and extraordinarily tenacious. Penny was the creation of Mildred A. Wirt, who was also the author of the original Nancy Drew series (under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene). Wirt once said, " 'I always thought Penny Parker was a better Nancy Drew than Nancy is." In THE GHOST BEYOND THE GATE, Penny's father mysteriously disappears in the wake of an accient. Penny must take over running the Riverview Star while trying to locate the missing editor and investigate a series of audacious thefts. - Summary by Cheryl Adam