MYSTERY AT LOON LAKE

by Gilbert B. Cross ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1986

Two 12-year-old brothers, one a recent Vietnamese adoptee, and their friend Jenny track smugglers in northern New Hampshire. This routine escapade abounds in the unlikely. The smugglers conveniently leave boxes labeled ""olmec"" (pre-Colombian artifacts) in an old building; the kids find out what they're smuggling by looking it up in the dictionary. Mosquitoes don't bite when it's too hot. Even after two attempts on their lives (rock dropping and poisoning), the kids don't report to the police, but go on stalking the criminals; the FBI, including Jenny's Dad, turn out to have been aware of their activities but to have done nothing. Worse, characters are stereotypical: a ferocious librarian, bossy Jenny, inarticulate Nguyen. Clumsily written, this has little to offer beyond a few cheap thrills in an implausible five-mile tunnel.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986

Categories: CHILDREN'S