Another Mystery Review
The Jinson Twins, Science Detectives, and the Mystery of Echo Lake by Steven L. Zeichner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Disclosure: I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway in the understanding that I would write a review of it.
This is the author's first fiction book, designed to teach kids about scientific principles in the setting of a mystery.
The science part is pretty good, working plausibly into the plot and well explained with helpful diagrams.
The fiction part not so much. This is one book that could really have benefited from being in tight third person rather than first person, especially as it switches to third person in the middle of sentences a few times, most noticably in the last chapter.
The in media res opening could use more punch--perhaps picking a more suspenseful moment might have helped.
May or may not be a bug; the two descriptions of the treasure's backstory don't quite match up, and I was left to wonder if the character was fibbing during one of the sequences, or the author forgot to go back and check for consistency.
Younger readers might be more forgiving, but I was thrown out of the story multiple times by the narration, which is simultaneously wordy and trying to sound properly immature.
I'll be handing this book off to my young nieces, but I don't expect they'll be asking for seconds.
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