So, first off, I want to thank Netgalley and the Publishing House Creating Publishing Company for allowing me to read an ARC of this book:

Some routes are easier to run than to finish.

At seventeen, Pim is one of the best canal runners in Copperwhistle—fast, reliable, invisible. She's spent nine years building a reputation on one simple rule: trust no one, need no one. It's kept her safe. It's kept her alone.

Now she's aging out of the only life she knows.

When a message she delivered goes missing, Pim's reputation—her only currency—is suddenly worthless. Someone is intercepting deliveries from the runner network, and the suspicion is falling on the runners. To clear her name, she'll need to do the one thing she's sworn never to do: ask for help.

The investigation pulls her into an unlikely partnership with Tenny, a former runner who's already made the leap Pim fears. It forces her to see the people who've been quietly looking out for her all along—the baker who always has extra bread, the old runner on his bench who sees too much, the runmaster who's been watching her for nine years without ever asking for thanks.

The mystery has an answer. The harder question is whether Pim can stop running long enough to find it.

The Canal Runner's Code is a companion book to the Copperwhistle Bridge Mysteries—a heartwarming cozy fantasy for readers who know that asking for help is its own kind of courage.

Perfect for readers who love:
- A teenage protagonist facing an uncertain future and finding her way
- Found family comfort reads—discovering the family she didn't know she had
- Low-stakes mysteries in a magical city with enchanted infrastructure
- Amateur sleuth stories solved through expertise, not violence
- Partnership that becomes friendship through shared investigation
- Coming-of-age stories about the courage to need someone
- Standalone companion books that expand a beloved world

Pim, lost her parents at the age of eight, and she has a brother - but he left "to make money" to send her money and hopefully reunite at some point in the future.  He sent some money to begin with - and now at this point, we do not know if he is alive or dead.

Pim, thinks she is an Army of One - she is a runner  - running messages from one company to the other in the town, a sea port, to keep the city growing and the businesses growing.  The life span of runners is very short -at the age of 17 her knees are about to go - and she knows she has to find another job and soon.

She talks about several people, we have Fitch a retired runner, who sits on a bench watching life go by, we have a bakery - where the owner gives her more food than what she paid for, always has, we have the owner and runner of the running group.

At this point, we have businesses losing important shipments, etc -and this is where we are at - Pim teams up with Tenny, another runner who is now working at a warehouse that has theft- to find the thief.

The book keeps brining up that we aren't an Army of One, Pim has always been watched after since she was a child - she just doesn't realize it- and I think the author beats that fact over the readers head - that its better to have others in your lives.  Fitch is 70 and has no one - and Pim doesn't want to be like that.

A very good story- I was even crying at parts of it- because I can sympathize with Pim -  it's easy to think of yourself being solitary but we do need others in our lives.

I would give this story a five out of five - what age -I think this would be appropriate for 11-100.  There is no kissing, no cursing, appropriate for all ages.

Five out of Five!

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