Review: American Treasure Hunters #4: The Missing U-Boat Enigma - Andrew M. Dare (Travis J.I. Corcoran)

One of the real pleasures of my reading this year has been discovering the American Treasure Hunters series. These young adult mystery/adventure novels are very much influenced by the Rick Brant, Hardy Boys, and Three Investigators series, and while their aim may be to help get boys reading again, they’re perfect for older readers like me with fond memories of those earlier books.

In the latest entry, THE MISSING U-BOAT ENIGMA, our three heroes, Ben Prescott, Porter Rockwell, and Latch McRae, discover a sunken German U-boat from World War II along the shore of North Carolina. The one-two punch of a tropical storm followed by a hurricane has uncovered the vessel, and of course Ben, Porter, and Latch have to explore it. In doing so, they discover a badly damaged Enigma code machine, and that plunges them into an effort to decode some German radio messages in which the code has never been cracked. Naturally, the shadowy, sinister organization with which the guys have clashed before wants to stop them before they uncover a secret that’s been hidden since 1942.

Well, I tell you, this stuff is right up my alley. I raced through this book and loved it. Ben, Porter, and Latch are great protagonists. Ben is supposedly the brain, Porter is the athlete and handles the heavy action, Latch is the gadget and gizmo guy. But they’re all very smart and use that intelligence as much as they use any of their other abilities.

There isn’t as much action in this novel as in the previous books of the series. Most of the focus is on the historical mystery, which is fine with me because it’s a really fascinating one. When they do have to face off with the bad guys, those scenes are handled very well.

Travis J.I. Corcoran is the author behind the Andrew M. Dare house-name on this novel, and he does a superb job with it. He’s written some well-regarded science fiction novels, some of which I already own. I need to get around to reading them. In the meantime, I give THE MISSING U-BOAT ENIGMA a high recommendation. It's available in e-book and hardcover editions from Amazon, or better yet, you can buy it directly from the publisher. I’ll be looking forward to reading the next book in the series.