The Mysteries in the Big City Series (Saga Misterios en la gran ciudad)

Captain Kidd’s Treasure | The Ghost Station | Curse In Manhattan

A young girl who inherits an antique shop filled with secrets and her inseparable best friend explore the hidden corners of New York, solving historical mysteries, preventing the theft of priceless relics, and learning that every object hides a story worth telling.

THEMES: Detective – Education – United States – Urban fantasy – Investigation

GENRE: Drama – Adventure

PITCH: Cornelia is eleven years old and living in New York when her eccentric friend Arthur Niemann — an antique dealer who could read the hidden stories inside objects — suddenly dies.

To her surprise, Cornelia becomes the sole heir to his shop, Niemann Antiques, and everything inside it. But the inheritance is not just dusty books and old furniture: it also includes mysteries to solve, riddles to decipher, and countless adventures waiting to unfold.

Accompanied by her inseparable friend Miguel — clever, loyal, and gifted with an instinct that cuts through every trap — and a cast of unforgettable characters, Cornelia faces mysteries that intertwine history and urban legends. Subway maps, ghost stations, lost manuscripts, and secret societies shape a saga deeply rooted in real New York City, celebrating the greatest treasures of all: knowledge and friendship.

Fast-paced, packed with ingenious puzzles, and perfectly balanced between adventure, learning, and emotion, Mysteries in the Big City is a series starring a brave and curious heroine designed to hook readers from the very first page.

In Captain Kidd’s Treasure, Cornelia receives a posthumous letter from Niemann containing a key and a coded message. With Miguel’s help, they decipher the puzzle inspired by Poe’s The Gold-Bug and follow clues leading them to the Statue of Liberty, Manhattanhenge, and a hidden mechanism inside a statue of the goddess Hecate. Finally, beneath the antique shop, they discover a secret basement where Niemann, through one final letter, reveals the truth: there is no material treasure, only the legacy of knowledge and the flame of wisdom. Cornelia accepts the responsibility of carrying it forward.

In The Ghost Station, Cornelia and Miguel receive a Guastavino tile sent by a mysterious graffiti artist known as REVS. Their investigation leads them to an abandoned subway station beneath City Hall, designed by Guastavino, and to a sealed door engraved with a quote from The Little Prince. With the help of old Murray, the neighborhood bookseller, and Babel the librarian, they discover that the door leads to a bunker belonging to the secret society known as the Quiet Birdmen, where they uncover an unpublished manuscript by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. They decide to donate it to the Public Library, and REVS — after escaping from the police — teaches Miguel how to paint graffiti, sealing their friendship.

In Curse in Manhattan, during a reorganization of the antique shop, Cornelia and Miguel discover a belt stolen from the Metropolitan Museum, accompanied by a note claiming it is cursed. Amanda Preston, a journalist and old friend of Niemann, helps them investigate, but someone steals the belt from them. They first suspect Duncan, the building’s janitor, and later Robert Thomas, their neighbor obsessed with cursed objects like the Hope Diamond, which Madonna is set to wear at the MET Gala. During the gala itself, Robert attempts to drug Madonna in order to steal the jewel, but he is arrested. The belt — also stolen by Robert — is recovered, and Cornelia and Miguel learn that the true curse is obsession itself.

RELEVANT INFORMATION: Ana Campoy is a Spanish writer, journalist, screenwriter, and radio host specializing in children’s and young adult literature. Campoy’s books, including the Premio Jaén de Narrativa Juvenil-winning works, have crossed borders and been sold in countries such as France, China, Italy, Greece, Poland, Turkey, Romania, and Slovenia.

The illustrations for the series are created by Álex Alonso, a Spanish illustrator and graphic designer best known for his editorial illustration work on series such as The Adventures of Alfred & Agatha and Familia a la fuga.

Mysteries in the Big City is a children’s series with tens of thousands of copies sold, combining mystery, history, and urban adventure with a thrilling pace, starring a curious, loyal, and highly intelligent heroine.

Built around a perfectly structured episodic format, the series develops a narrative based on historical artifacts, secret societies, and puzzles that carry over from one book to the next, creating an overarching storyline that keeps readers hooked installment after installment.

Its recurring characters — Miguel, Astrid, Amanda Preston, Babel, Murray, and the enigmatic REVS — alongside its iconic settings and investigative plots, make the saga an ideal property for a family-oriented screen adaptation. With a heroine who relies not on superpowers but on intelligence and teamwork, Mysteries in the Big City has everything needed to become an audiovisual franchise that is both heartwarming and addictive.

AUDIOVISUAL POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Film, TV Film.

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.