Sam And Beryl Epstein

Sam and Beryl Epstein were a husband and wife writing team whose greatest success came in young adult fiction. Though husband Sam was largely responsible for writing the much heralded series, his wife Beryl did the editing, and added her own touch as well. Ken Holt is the son of Richard Holt, a foreign correspondent for Global News. Motherless, he makes his home with the Allen family in Brentwood, who are good friends of his father, while his dad chases stories. His best friend Sandy Allen works on the town paper, the Advance, and somehow the boys always stumble into a big mystery, and danger.

What separates the Ken Holt series from many others is the quality of writing and the stories. There is an atmosphere to the Ken Holt series which can be almost softly noirish at times. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, like the Hardy Boys, but there is more grit to a Ken Holt mystery, and the boys seem a little more adult. Though the stories are fun, the danger is written more realistically than many other books for young adults from this era. If there’s a gun in play, not only is there a good chance it will be fired, but someone could actually get hurt. The same goes for a car chase, etc and this makes for a good mystery.

In this one, some corruption on the docks leads to Richard Holt and Sandy’s father deciding someplace else is the best place for the boys until the story blows over. But on an archaeological dig near Delaware Bay, where it is rumored Captain Kidd stashed some treasure, the boys find themselves in danger nonetheless, as they help search for an ancient glass house the leaders of the dig are certain is there. Someone is attempting to sabotage the expedition, and using galloping hoofbeats, which are part of an old legend tied to rum-running, to scare them off. Before it’s all over, there is some violence and exciting thrills as the two cases eventually meld into one.

While a couple of entries in the series were a tick better, this one is pretty good. Sam and his wife Beryl were a good writing team and the Ken Holt mysteries stands out from the pack in an era when so many famous series for children and young adults were being written. When you see the name Bruce Campbell on the front of a Ken Holt book, know that it is Samuel and Beryl Epstein who gave birth to one of the best written series books for children ever penned.… (mehr)

I have small stacks of books, tucked in different places around my house waiting to be read, that I've picked up at antique stores or used books stores. This one I found a few months ago at an antique shop and finally got to it after a few weeks recovering from surgery. Though it is the second in a series, I expected it to be relatively stand-alone, as this type generally are. A few too many references to the first and I had to set it aside for a few days while I sought the first to fill in the gaps. Typical Hardy Boys style boy adventures, as I noted on the first book, the authors (husband and wife team writing as Campbell) were a little ambiguous with the ages of the two main characters - supposedly high school aged, but not coming off that way, particularly when pugilism inserted itself. The premise of this one was a little stretched. A twenty year old controversial legal case that was supposed to be famous but takes place in boondocks Colorado? And the setting and story screamed anachronism, like missed the right time period by 40 years. Still, the pace was decent, the unfolded plot engaging enough until the erstwhile and mostly sharp detectives suddenly got pretty clueless. And I can't help but think the Scooby Do writers were familiar ("If it wasn't for those pesky kids...!") with this style of adolescent fare from the 1940s-60s.… (mehr)

I found the second of this series at an antique shop a few months ago and finally picked it up to read on Sunday, expecting a stand-alone with some sort of continuity as is the case with most series like this. About a quarter through, some of that continuity was implied but not explained, so I went in search of the first book, this one. And for late 1940s boy adventure, it’s not bad. The ambiguity of the age of the two main characters and their independence and knowledge might have been deliberate to appeal to a broader age demographic, but there were more than a few incongruities with the ages that the authors (husband and wife team writing as Bruce Campbell) were trying to portray. The flow was pretty well crafted until the end and the story for the most part seemed realistic until the end. the authors did waver a bit towards the end with a few naive points for the primary character that seemed, well, out of character for what they had developed. The wrap up was a little too quick and a little too pat, and wasn’t as baffling as the description but the book (and ending) fit the genre and is similar to others I’ve read from the period written. Still, a light fun read which gave me the missing parts to continue with The Riddle of the Stone Element.

[I rarely summarize plots of fiction in my reviews mostly out of respect for the author but also for the reader because I don’t like to spoil the read for others, even with a “spoiler alert” warning.]… (mehr)