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The Money Pit Mystery

by Eric Walters

Say the words “Oak Island” and your imagination immediately conjures up images of pirate ships, Captain Kidd’s legendary treasure supposedly hidden on the island, and more than 200 years of ghostly goings-on. Eric Walters deftly interweaves some of the best-known stories about these Nova Scotian myths into his exciting new novel.

There’s really more than one mystery to be solved on Oak Island as 11-year-old Sam and his 13-year-old sister, Becky, return to visit their Grandpa after a three-year absence following an estrangement between their mother and grandfather. It’s clear that something is dreadfully wrong. Not only is Grandpa’s formerly neat house in total disrepair, but he doesn’t seem to be living in the present and has become obsessed with hunting for the Oak Island treasure. As an extensive new dig gets under way to prove once and for all whether Captain Kidd really buried pirate gold on Oak Island, the kids and their Grandpa soon end up on an exciting treasure hunt of their own.

Walters has created a gripping, suspense-filled adventure mystery that’s an excellent companion to Joan Clark’s The Hand of Robin Squires (also about Oak Island). And there’s certainly more to The Money Pit Mystery than just action. It’s also a sensitive portrait of a family coming to grips with what may well be the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. But the book has one drawback: here again, as in his previous novels, Walters gives young readers no clues about what he has taken from historical source material and what is his own invention.

 

Reviewer: Jeffrey Canton

Publisher: HarperCollins Canada

DETAILS

Price: $14

Page Count: 250 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 0-00-648151-5

Released: Feb.

Issue Date: 2000-4

Categories:

Age Range: ages 8–12

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