The North Valley Squad Mysteries

The North Valley Squad Mysteries is a detective fiction series started in 2014 and released by Hyperion. The series revolves around a close-knit circle of high school friends from North Valley, California who solve crimes and mysteries as a team of young detectives with the help of an invisible ghost named Silo. Silo can communicate with the teens only by manipulating whatever text and letters he can find and using them to form words and sentences. The series was filmed on location in Oceanside, California in the TV series.

Series Background
The stories follows teenage amateur detectives: Taylor Larson, Kiki Fernandez, R.J. Kayden, Mel Kayden, and Mia Powell. They all live in North Valley, California and attend North Valley High. Taylor, Kiki, and R.J. are juniors and Mel and Mia are sophomores, making Mel and Mia the youngest members of the group. As the series progressed, the team added new faces to the group as original members depart, aspiring poet Caleb Roberts, Carlos Garcia, Katie Ryan, Emily Carver, etc.

North Valley Squad
When the series began, it was based around four high school characters, all students at North Valley High in North Valley, California. The "team" later expanded to include six (later seven) active members, one MIA member, one member in Australia, two members in England, and three members in 1928.

To become a member of the team, a kid would have to be able to read the words that Silo manipulates. There was normally an induction ceremony for each new member that joined the team. At this ceremony, they would be given a special pen with a string to be placed around the neck so the members could write to Silo no matter where they happened to be and to note all of the clues of their investigations. When a team meeting was required, one of the members would text message to their cellphones. The message "rally", followed by the first initial of the member that was hosting the meeting (always either Taylor, Kiki, R.J., Mel, and Mia). Mel and Mia's name begins with the letter M. Whenever they host a meeting, Mel sends a RALLY message: RALLY M.K. and Mia's was RALLY M.P.

NVS Members with RALLY Initials

 * Taylor Larson - RALLY T
 * Kiki Fernandez - RALLY K
 * R.J. Kayden - RALLY R
 * Mel Kayden - RALLY M.K.
 * Mia Powell - RALLY M.P.
 * Caleb Roberts - RALLY C
 * Carlos Santos - RALLY C
 * Katie Ryan - RALLY K
 * Owen Duncan - RALLY O
 * Ellie Delaney - RALLY E
 * Eddie Wilkerson - RALLY E
 * Suzie Wyatt - RALLY S
 * Alex Wyatt - RALLY A

Members of the team also use a casebook. A casebook is a binder with papers or a notebook for noting all the suspects, evidences against them, and clues for their investigations. As Mel said, "solving a case is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, and the casebook is where (they) keep all the pieces." Basically, a casebook is an effective tool to "start piecin' the puzzle. Organizing stuff, getting it together." Silo would also read whatever was written within the casebook, and then help the team to find more clues. There's also another casebook especially made for Silo to help him figure out who he was.


 * Make a casebook to keep track of all the clues:
 * Make a page for each suspect.
 * SUSPECT: Who might have done the crime?
 * EVIDENCE:Where was the suspect and why would he or she do it?
 * Make a page for OTHER CLUES.
 * Write facts that may be important to help solve the case.

Members

 * Taylor Larson - Leader of the team; an aspiring fashion designer.
 * Kiki Fernandez - Taylor's best friend; Aspiring filmmaker.
 * R.J. Kayden - Aspiring basketball player; skilled detective.
 * Mel Kayden - R.J.'s younger sister, aspiring photographer
 * Mia Powell - R.J.'s love interest, aspiring journalist and environmentalist. Mia join the team a few episodes.
 * Caleb Roberts - A young poet who joins the team after Mia.
 * Carlos Santos - A dyslexic basketball player and friend of R.J.'s.
 * Katie Ryan - An upbeat writer and skilled journalist.
 * Ellie Delaney
 * Emily Carver
 * Eddie Wilkerson
 * Suzie Wyatt
 * Alex Wyatt