Famous as a pre-teen detective, Barclay "Brains" Benton and his best friend Jimmy Carson have grown up. After college Brains has gone to work for an electronics company while Jim is now a crime reporter for a newspaper in Los Angeles.

Time, work and circumstances have drawn Jim back to his old home town of Crestwood while he takes a summer break from reporting. Brains joins him to take his mind off his girlfriend having moved away from California for a year. They rent an attic room and decide to take on a few small cases.

But, when a mysterious woman gets word to them through Jim's sister—she was one of Ann's favorite, if a little eccentric, teachers—that she is being stalked by aliens from outer space, both young men are drawn into one of their weirder mysteries ever.

It gets even stranger when the woman's own daughter turns out to be nearly as eccentric. The two have been living in a house where it seems the only way to get in or out is to climb up the side to a second-story window! But when the old woman disappears almost out from under Brains' and Jim's noses, they just have to get to the bottom of it.

The original Brains Benton series ran just six books in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Since then, only a few authors have attempted "fan fiction" to the extent of writing additional novels. This one follows onto the first three by author Scott Lockwood and uses some of his situations. It is the first of a planned pair of Brains and Jim as adults novels.

If you will, please note that the style of the writing is designed so the story can be enjoyed by young adult readers as well as old coots such as myself who can recall when the first books arrived on store and library shelves!