Review: American Treasure Hunters: The Pirate and Alamo - Andrew M. Dare

I really enjoyed the first two books in the American Treasure Hunters series, THE HUNT FOR CONFEDERATE GOLD and THE BOSTON TEA PARTY CONSPIRACY, but I’ve been especially looking forward to the third book, THE PIRATE AND THE ALAMO, since, as you can tell from the title, it takes place in Texas.

It’s safe to say I was not disappointed. At all.

This one finds our teenage protagonists, Ben Prescott, Porter Rockwell, and Latch McCrae, in San Antonio with Ben’s wealthy uncle, who plans to bid at an auction for a Corvette Stingray that once belonged to an astronaut. But of course things become more complicated than that when they come into possession of an antique powder horn that might have belonged to Jim Bowie. And, also of course, that powder horn has some sort of cipher etched into it and another secret lurking inside, as well. Before you know it, the guys are untangling a mystery that involves not only the battle of the Alamo but also the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte, and once again they find themselves in danger from forces that want to uncover the truth first, for their own nefarious ends.

I raced through this novel and had an absolutely great time reading it. The fast-paced prose and intricate plot from author Andrew M. Dare would have been very entertaining regardless of where the book was set, but having it take place in areas I know fairly well made it even more enjoyable. For example, when there’s a great chase scene along the River Walk, I couldn’t help but think of the time I had supper with Bill and Judy Crider at one of the restaurants right there by the river. I’ve been to the Alamo and inside the Menger Hotel many times. When the trail leads to the Lost Pines area in central Texas, I know what it looks like because I’ve driven through there many, many times (in a different location than the scenes in the book, but in the same stretch of pines that runs through that part of Texas). I always get a kick out of fiction set in places I know, and this book is a prime example of that. Andrew M. Dare, mentioned above, is actually a house-name, and the author of this one is David Afsharirad, a Texan his own self, so he knows what he's talking about.

Throw in the fact that the three protagonists are just so dang likable, and I can’t help but feel like THE PIRATE AND THE ALAMO is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. It’s available on Amazon in e-book, hardcover, and audio editions, and I give it a very high recommendation.

Review: American Treasure Hunters #2: The Boston Tea Party Conspiracy - Andrew M. Dare

I really enjoyed the first book in the American Treasure Hunters series, THE HUNT FOR CONFEDERATE GOLD. The second book, THE BOSTON TEA PARTY CONSPIRACY, finds our three teenage heroes—brainy Ben Prescott, brawny Porter Rockwell, and jack-of-all-trades Latch McCrae—investigating another historical mystery. This time they’re trying to discover whether Samuel Adams had an ulterior motive for orchestrating the Boston Tea Party. Evidence has surfaced that Adams was really after some sort of treasure that may have been hidden among the tea, and striking a blow of American independence may not have been the reason he organized the Sons of Liberty.

So off go the trio of treasure hunters from their homes in North Carolina to Boston, where their investigation involves them with a tech mogul, a pretty history professor (there’s not even a hint of romance despite the fact that she’s only about ten years older than the guys, because these are very clean books), assorted bruisers who also believe there’s a treasure to be tracked down, some Freemasons, and at least one 250-year-old murder to be solved. Author Andrew M. Dare keeps the action racing along and also peels away the layers of the mystery in very satisfying fashion.

I think I enjoyed THE BOSTON TEA PARTY CONSPIRACY even more than the first book in the series. There’s more action as the boys find themselves up against some ruthless adversaries, and the historical mystery is intriguing and well-developed. I also liked the fact that all three of our heroes pitch in on the brain work. They’re all very likable guys. The large supporting cast from the first book is mostly absent this time around and I kind of missed them, but it was also nice seeing Ben, Porter, and Latch operating mostly on their own.

If you’re an old codger like me and grew up reading boy’s adventure series such as Rick Brant, the Hardy Boys, and the Three Investigators, the American Treasure Hunters series definitely should be on your radar. If you have young friends or relatives who are big readers, or even who aren’t, these books are aimed squarely at them. The hardcover edition of THE BOSTON TEA PARTY CONSPIRACY is already out, and the e-book edition will be released on July 7. I had a great time reading it and give it a high recommendation.

And next time around, the guys are headed for Texas and the Alamo. I can’t wait.

Review: American Treasure Hunters: The Hunt for Confederate Gold

I’ve written here before about how much I enjoyed the boy’s adventure series I read as a kid, especially Rick Brant, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift Jr., and the Three Investigators. As far as I know, that sort of series hasn’t existed for a long time. Until now.

THE HUNT FOR CONFEDERATE GOLD is the first book in a new series called AMERICAN TREASURE HUNTERS, written by Andrew M. Dare and published by Ark Press. The publisher’s website does a better job of summarizing it than I can, so I’m going to quote it:

“Ben Prescott, Porter Rockwell, and Latch McRae couldn’t be more different. Ben is a home-schooled brainiac. Porter is the starting quarterback for the Ridgeport Raiders, and Latch is a grease-smudged prodigy who never saw an engine he couldn’t take apart and set to purring. Yet the three have been friends forever, drawn together by a shared passion: treasure hunting for the forgotten loot of American history. 

During a raucous Fourth of July fireworks battle, the trio stumbles onto a lost Confederate blockade-runner. Locked inside: a rusted safe, a sealed pouch, and the first breadcrumb to a vanished fortune in Confederate government gold, missing since the final days of the War Between the States. 

They’re not alone. A bitter ex-employee of Ben’s father and a well-funded outsider are willing to lie, steal, and threaten to take the treasury for themselves, and wipe out the story of its origin. 

Now the hunters must face danger and work their way through knotty clues and ciphers as they seek a long-lost map drawn in invisible ink on the back of a letter from General Robert E. Lee himself! It’s a map that may point to one of America’s richest lost treasures.”

My reaction to reading this book is pretty simple. If I’d read it when I was 13 years old, I would have thought it’s one of the greatest books ever written. From the perspective of being 60 years on down the road from that point, I still thoroughly enjoyed it and think it’s an excellent yarn. Ben, Porter, and Latch are fine protagonists, and the story moves along at a fast pace through a well-constructed historical mystery.

Of the vintage series I mentioned above, the one I’m most reminded of by THE HUNT FOR CONFEDERATE GOLD is the great Rick Brant series. Like Rick and Scotty in those books, the heroes of this series are old enough and athletic enough to take care of themselves in the action scenes, and there are a few hints of espionage and intrigue, the way Rick and Scotty used to find themselves helping out JANIG, the Joint Army Navy Intelligence Group (that’s right, I remember what the initials stand for after 60 years). The emphasis in this series is more on history than on science, but you get the same mixture of educational stuff with action, mystery, a little romance (that angle is handled quite well), and a little humor.

I enjoyed this book a lot and look forward to the others in the series. It’s available on Amazon in e-book and hardcover editions, or you can get it directly from the publisher’s website here. If you’re looking for a book a teenage boy would find entertaining, or you’re an old geezer revisiting your own reading as a kid, I highly recommend it. 

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Doomed Demons - Eustace L. Adams

There’s a story behind my reading of this one. When I was a kid, the elementary school I attended had no school library. Instead, each teacher had a shelf of books in her room that the students could check out. I was in either third or fourth grade, I don’t remember which, when I found a book called DOOMED DEMONS on the library shelf in my classroom. Now, to my nine- or ten-year-old mind, DOOMED DEMONS was just about the coolest title ever, so of course I had to read it. All I remembered as time passed was that it was about World War I pilots, but that fact and the title stayed with me for more than forty years.

So recently I was poking around ABE and decided to search and see if I’d recalled the title correctly. It took only a moment to discover that I had. Cheap copies of DOOMED DEMONS are plentiful. The author is Eustace L. Adams (which I had totally forgotten) and the publisher is Grosset & Dunlap (likewise). Those two items were enough to tell me that it’s what was referred to in those days as a “boy’s adventure book”, a juvenile novel with lots of action and derring-do and a relatively young hero. Grosset & Dunlap was a well-known publisher of such books, and Eustace L. Adams was the author of the long-running Andy Lane series in that genre, as well as writing numerous adult novelettes and serials for such pulps as ARGOSY.

Well, you know where this is leading. Of course I had to order a copy and read it again, more years than I like to think about after reading it for the first time. I’m happy to report that not only does it hold up well, I probably enjoyed it more now than I did back then. It’s the story of a group of young aviators, most of them college age, in France during World War I. The hero is dashing, redheaded Jimmy Deal, and his main sidekick is the chubby, happy-go-lucky Pooch Malloy. Yeah, they’re cliches and stereotypes, and they probably were even in 1935 when this book was published, but I don’t care. I had a great time reading about their adventures. Jimmy crash-lands behind enemy lines and has to steal a German plane to get back to his aerodrome. He carries out a daring rescue of some downed fliers in the English Channel and conducts a dangerous one-man bombing raid on some German submarine pens. He even winds up owning a French country inn that he converts into an officer’s club, until it winds up being the target of a German bombing run.

Adams spins this episodic yarn in a breezy, fast-paced style for the most part, including some excellent aerial combat scenes. When a lot of authors start describing dogfights, I have a hard time following the action, but not here. The images Adams creates are clear and quite striking. Since this is a boy’s book, there’s no sex or cussin’ but plenty of violence. It is a war novel, after all. Although it’s not dwelt on in detail, characters die right and left, including some sympathetic ones. Then the book’s tone takes a sharp, very effective turn toward bleak realism near the end.

I wouldn’t recommend DOOMED DEMONS to everyone, but if you remember reading books like this as a kid or if you’re a fan of World War I aviation yarns, I think you’d get a real kick out of it. I know I did, and this is one instance where I’m glad I revisited my childhood.

(This post originally appeared on a somewhat different form on December 24, 2007. When I reread DOOMED DEMONS back then, I discovered there are several more books featuring Jimmy Deal and Pooch Malloy. I found and ordered copies of all of them. I also ordered all of Adams' Andy Lane books. And in the nearly two decades since then, I have not read a blasted one of them. What is wrong with me?)