They bought $4 used copy of Dune and found hidden letter that solved a 20-year-old family mystery

A casual trip to a used bookstore in Seattle turned into something far more personal after a reader discovered an unexpected letter hidden inside a worn paperback. The story was shared on Reddit by u/0xKay, who explained how buying a $4 copy of Dune led to uncovering a decades-old family secret that had never been resolved. According to the post, which has gained 3.3k upvotes so far, the person was browsing a secondhand bookstore when they found the copy, "I almost put it back because I wanted a hardcover," they wrote, "but something about the worn edges made me feel like it had been loved, so I bought it."

While reading at home, a folded piece of yellow legal paper slipped out when they reached page 142. "It wasn’t a bookmark. It was a letter. Dated October 14, 2004," the post read. The handwriting was hurried and written in blue ink, and the message was unsettling in its directness. It read: "David, I hid the bonds in the hollow leg of the old workbench in the garage. I don’t trust Elena. If anything happens to me, check the leg. Do not sell the house until you check. Love, Dad."

Shaken by what they had found, u/0xKay checked the inside cover of the book and noticed a faint red stamp that read, "Ex Libris: Arthur P. Halloway." Realizing the letter clearly belonged to someone else, they decided they had a responsibility to track down the family it was meant for.

After several hours of searching through ancestry records and local obituaries, they found an obituary for an Arthur Halloway who died in 2005 in Tacoma. The listing mentioned a surviving son named David. The reader eventually located a David Halloway on Facebook and sent him a message, fully expecting it to be ignored or mistaken for a scam. The message remained unanswered for two days before David finally responded, asking how a stranger could possibly have his father’s handwriting.

They explained how they found the book and sent a photo of the letter. David called almost immediately and became emotional as he explained what the note meant to him. "He told me that his father died of a sudden heart attack in 2005. His stepmother, 'Elena,' had liquidated everything immediately. David had always suspected his father had left something for him and his sister, but they never found a will or any assets. They ended up selling the house to Elena’s brother a month after the funeral," the reader shared in their post. The letter also mentioned one shocking detail: the old workbench was still in the garage.

David drove to the house, which is now rented out, and explained the situation to the tenants. After showing them a photo of the letter, he asked if he could inspect the workbench. When they allowed him inside, David discovered that one of the legs had a false bottom. Inside were bearer bonds and a property deed to a cabin in Montana that his stepmother had never known about. In a message to u/0xKay afterward, David said, "I’ve felt crazy for 20 years thinking my dad left us nothing. You just gave me my father back."

Researchers have found that personal possessions can serve as powerful cues to memory and identity, influencing how people connect with their past and interpret meaningful events. A review published in Current Opinion in Psychology examined how everyday objects, keepsakes, and items tied to personal history can trigger autobiographical remembering, helping people refresh memories associated with past experiences and relationships long after they occurred.

The reader shared that they were planning to meet for coffee so they could return the book, adding, "I think I’m going to let him keep the $4 copy of Dune." The post garnered a significant number of reactions from other Reddit users, many of whom shared similar experiences or reactions. u/5litergasbubble wrote, "I'm just curious who was paying property taxes for that house that no one knew about for 20 years." u/Fun_Ad_4258 shared, "Oddly enough, this happened to my brother and me. We inherited property and had no idea. A cousin had been paying the taxes for years and finally decided to track us down because he wanted to sell his portion. Crazy, really."

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