Used books hold memories, but in this case, one held the key to a 20-year-old inheritance mystery. 

Everyone knows that the best who-done-it mystery stories have a simple formula: There’s always going to be a cherished family estate, an evil step-mother, a handwritten letter, and furniture that has secret compartments. If you’ve read even a single Harlan Coben book, you’ll understand that despite it’s semi foreseeable nature, we all love a good family mystery that’s steeped in deceit, betrayal, loss, and, most obviously, an egregious amount of dear ol’ dad’s mystery money. 

For the man in this next story, a book-lover who just stumbled into the right used book store at the right time, a super mystery fell into his lap, summoning him to play detective. But this mystery wasn’t locked in the pages of another dusty book; this mystery was his to solve in real life. 

After finding a handwritten note in the middle of a well-loved, $4 copy of Dune, the man was sent on a journey to find the recipient of the letter, a stranger whose father was still sharing family secrets from beyond the grave. This goose chase not only led to the discovery of the letter’s recipient, but to the long-lost inheritance left to him by a loving father and stolen by an evil step-mother.