  urlLink Apple - Pro/Words - Daniel J. Hale & Matthew LaBrot : "What young person doesn’t love a mystery story?
Especially when the heroes are smart kids who manage to solve crimes before any of the adults around them have even a fraction of a clue. One such sleuth is Zeke Armstrong, the cowlicked and sports-loving protagonist of Daniel J. Hale and Matthew LaBrot’s “Zeke Armstrong Mystery Series.” In May, 2003, the first Zeke Armstrong book, “Red Card,” won a prestigious Agatha Award for Best Children’s/Young Adult Mystery, an honor named for famed mystery writer Agatha Christie.
LaBrot, who was 15 at the time, is the youngest writer ever to win the award. This month, “Green Streak,” the pair’s second book, will hit bookstores. And a third, “White Out,” is in the works — with many more to come. Email Exercise Leads to More Hale, 44, and LaBrot, 16, are an uncle-and-nephew writing team who live about 100 miles from each other in the Dallas area. The two decided to write a book after playfully exchanging emails on a day LaBrot was feeling particularly dejected.
“I was playing soccer in Dallas, and was kind of having a tough season,” says LaBrot. “One day, my uncle was trying to make me feel not so down, so he started joking around, typing things on the computer, joking about some of the people on the team, and stuff.” Hale and LaBrot then took turns, writing down a sentence at a time — and laughing a lot. “I told him to delete it, but he said ‘No, this could be good.’ The next day, we decided to start writing a book.”" 
