Mountain Cabin Mystery.

Mountain Cabin Mystery

Max Elliot Anderson

Winona Lake, Indiana 

Tweener Press

ISBN: 0972925635 $10.95 123 pp.

Max Eliot Anderson's latest book in the Tweener adventure series is Mountain Cabin Mystery. Three friends, Scott, Al, and Benji, get accepted to a wilderness training camp in the Rockies. But this summertime trip into the mountains to learn outdoor survival skills is only the backdrop to a rollicking adventure that climbs up your spine and hangs by its fingertips from the cliff of your skull.

This book has a thrill-a-minute, from getting lost and scared half to death at night in the deep woods, to crossing a frayed swinging bridge over a fathomless gorge, and wild animal attacks. But bear with me a moment (har-har) because even that's not all. This survival story takes a wild turn for the worse into the frightening world of international terrorism and kidnapping with the discovery of a remote cabin on the wrong side of a mountainous world of danger. Terrorists, * bears, and hunger stalk three defenseless kids--the hunt is on! What can some lost kids just hoping for temporary shelter, warm food, and a quick way home do against these odds? I do not want to spoil it by giving any thing away, so let's say that we can all easily relate to Benji's mom fainting when she merely hears what her son has survived at the end of the book. Twice.

What Max Anderson does in these Tweener tales is recreate the good old kid's action adventure story made popular during the pulp era. The most famous series of this genre is The Hardy Boys, of course, but Anderson's books are a bit different. Tweener books do not feature a single set of kids, but have different characters and locations for each book. Wild adventure is the only common theme. However, these aren't dry imitations of past stories, but present-day, real-world Tom Sawyer-savvy American adventure tales with a slight pop-Christian twist. Thrill and learn at the same time. Or, to put it another way, enjoy a good read and never realize that you are being taught something important. Mountain Cabin Mystery teaches responsibility for one's actions and that even choosing the wrong path in life can be made right in the end by thoughtful, courageous actions. You can start out lost in the dark but still end up a hero in the light, if you truly try.

* My one complaint about this book, without being too literary about matters, is the handling of the terrorist element. Structurally speaking it was introduced too late. It enters around page 90, which wouldn't have been so bad if previously alluded to or some how crafted into the plot. In old pulp adventure mysteries it is fine to unveil the criminal, or blow the top off with the great secret, or begin to unravel the mystery at page 90, but not to introduce these things. In the author's defense terrorism can be said to be yet another thing the kids went through that day; however, he made it the central theme of the climax and book (through the events and then awe of the press conference etc.) It made the boys heroes, elevated the story to a whole new level, and hence is essential to the book. To stumble onto this plot twist in the last 30 pages is not the proper way to do it. Outside of this technical flaw, the book is a fun read and there are no problems.