Schoolhouse Detective by Mark Clark (2026) is a middle-grade techno-mystery set at Glades Prep Academy, where the annual Science Fair is rocked by a string of escalating sabotages—missing files, corrupted code, and a destroyed hydroponics project. Marcus Taylor, a brilliant but socially withdrawn student focused on his AI weather model, starts digging into the attacks and finds evidence that seems to point to a classmate—until he’s suddenly framed by a sophisticated “framing protocol” that rewrites digital logs to make him the culprit. Forced to investigate without his devices, Marcus teams up with his academic rival Jennifer Chen, combining his technical instincts with her methodical approach to uncover the real mastermind: a student using an advanced AI system (“Aether”) to manipulate data, sabotage competitors, and control the narrative. The story culminates in a high-stakes Science Fair showdown where Marcus and Jennifer expose the sabotage scheme publicly, clearing Marcus’s name and sparking new conversations about ethics, pressure, and responsible technology use.