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THE TREASURE OF ALPHEUS WINTERBORN

Like Raskin's Westing (see below), amateur archaeologist Alpheus Winterborn is one of those millionaires of fiction who delight in mystifying survivors with cryptic treasure hunts. And Anthony, whose father has a heart attack early on and whose mother is obsessively insecure about money, is determined to find the rumored treasure. He comes upon the first clue accidentally while dusting the library which old Winterborn had financed; and from then on Anthony and his librarian friend Miss Eells pursue leads and misleads, hassled all the while by the ruthless competition of a Winterborn nephew, banker Hugo Philpotts. Bellairs ends extravagantly with the rest of downtown evacuated for an expected flood; Philpotts overhearing Anthony's guess as to the treasure's location; an injured Miss Eells out cold in the library; Anthony seeking help but Philpotts instead forcing him up the steeple to fetch the treasure; Anthony banging for the fire department, which arrives with the town in tow; and the treasure, now Anthony's, revealed as an angel from the ark of the covenant. Even though the old statue's identity is never absolutely certified, a more modest find—not to mention a less melodramatic finale—would better suit the story. Nevertheless, Bellairs drops clues and plants obstacles tidily enough to give mystery fans a run for their money.

Pub Date: April 24, 1978

ISBN: 0140380094

Page Count: 196

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1978

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HOLES

Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...

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  • Newbery Medal Winner

Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).

Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.

Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5

Page Count: 233

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000

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THE SHERLOCK SOCIETY

From the Sherlock Society series , Vol. 1

An environmental mystery featuring lots of clever detecting, a bit of danger, and real felonies to investigate.

Toxic waste dumped in the Everglades gives a quartet of middle school sleuths their first case.

Leading Carl Hiaasen fans over familiar ground, Ponti pitches 12-year-old Alex Sherlock and his 13-year-old sister, Zoe, with school friends Lina and Yadi as sidekicks, into a summer caper. It all begins with the hunt for a supposed fortune buried decades ago by Al Capone, culminates in a narrow escape from an exploding yacht, and ultimately exposes a smooth-talking bad actor shady enough to bring in even federal authorities. As the kids’ live-in Grandpa, a retired investigative reporter, delivers pointers on how to conduct interviews and sift evidence while grandly driving them around South Florida in his classic Cadillac, Roberta, the budding detectives display sharp wits, eyes, and negotiating skills. The last come in particularly useful when they’re dealing with their lawyer…who’s also their mom. Both the plot and the chain of evidence take logical courses, and since Dad is a marine biologist and Lina’s a recent transplant from Wyoming, Ponti is able to use their dialogue to highlight the local culture and larger ecological issues. Main characters present white, apart from tech wiz Yadi, who is cued Latine.

An environmental mystery featuring lots of clever detecting, a bit of danger, and real felonies to investigate. (Mystery. 9-13)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024

ISBN: 9781665932530

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Aladdin

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

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