Hunt for the Nighthawks by Felice Arena

Title: Hunt for the Nighthawks

Author: Felice Arena

Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

Publisher: Penguin Australia

Published: 30^th June 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 192

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: It’s Jake and his friends versus the Nighthawks . . . and the Nighthawks will stop at nothing to get what they want.
A thrilling middle-grade adventure of friendship and bravery, combining mystery, history and the supernatural. By the bestselling author of the Specky Magee series.

When Jake meets the ghost of a young Roman, he is sent on a mission to recover stolen treasure from a group of thieves known as the Nighthawks.

It will take all their detective skills and courage, but Jake and his friends Tilly and Rabbit will uncover much more than gold and silver, and the stakes are higher than they could ever imagine.

~*~

Jake is staying with his grandmother in a village near Cambridge after having trouble at home after a family tragedy. He’s lost interest in playing football and supporting his favourite team, he doesn’t want to make friends, and he feels alienated from his family. He doesn’t know anyone in the new village. Not only that, but he’s also unaware the field behind his nan’s house is home to a Roman archaeological site.

Until the nighthawks come. They’re digging up in the farmland behind his nan’s home when Jake hears them and heads outside to investigate, and chase them away. It’s around then that he meets a ghost boy called Marcus from the early centuries of Roman Britain seeking help to move on, as well as recover stolen Roman treasure.

Enter Jake’s new friends, Rabbit, a football enthusiast, babbler and someone eager to learn from Jake. Tilly, an eager environmentalist and wildlife enthusiast whose uncle is an archaeologist working against the nighthawks, and very pleased about getting to dig in the field. Yet, there’s more going on than they could ever have imagined between ghosts, mysteries and robberies that Jake and his friends are determined to uncover.

Hunt for the Nighthawks is the latest middle grade offering from Felice Arena that brings ghosts, history, mystery, friendship and family into the modern world. The three main kids are unique individuals with their own interests, their own struggles and their own backgrounds and connections that shape them and how their stories unfold. For the first page, there is something happening, ebbing and flowing as Jake and his friends try to track down who the nighthawks are, slowly eliminating people as they explore Cambridge and their village.

This is a fast-paced book where history, mystery and ghosts come together, and create a world where children are at the centre of the mystery and learning more about history and the world around them as they go. Curiosity drives this story, as well as Jake, Rabbit and Tilly’s motives to solve the mystery and find out who the nighthawks are.

Like any good mystery, there are a few suspects that pop up along the way, and some that are easily ruled out and others that are too good to be true. I felt that this shaped the novel and drove what it was doing to keep younger readers engaged, and it has promise as a potential series connected by the characters, or it works equally well as a brilliant stand-alone novel that I think middle grade and older readers will enjoy.

This was a fascinating book that also dealt with grief and how it affects us all differently, giving it a special layer of gravitas amongst the funny moments to give Jake’s story depth, and show kids going through what he is that they are not alone.