Four modern teenage girls-opinionated Alice Van Hoorn, girly-girl Hannah Melyvski, pessimistic Emmadale Willard, and levelheaded Jeanette Carson-and their ten-year-old companion, wise-cracking Jenny Rosenberg, are a group of talented figure skaters who are spending their summer free time at the Fairview Ice Arena when they overhear a strange conversation between two suspicious-looking men. When a new British friend, Jack Roddingham, arrives and reveals some information about the two shady characters, the girls are unexpectedly sent into a mysterious adventure. Things get even more baffling when Jack disappears. The mystery grows more and more puzzling until a sudden remembrance by Alice brings the adventure to a stunning close.
At age fifteen, Don McDermott decided to become an author like his older sisters, Cate and Alexandra McDermott, and started writing the Freestyle Five mystery series. Don enjoys incorporating characters and elements from everyday life into his stories, and in this instance Don was inspired by five figure skaters who took lessons at the same ice rink where he used to play hockey.