Review: The Highland Falcon Thief (Adventures on Trains #1)

 

Hal Beck is unhappy to be sent away with his uncle while his mom has a new baby.  He'd much rather have a dog than a baby for starters.  Also, his uncle is ok, but he'd rather be at home.

Hal is getting the opportunity of a lifetime.  The Highland Falcon, a steam train, is being retired, but first it will go on a long slow trip up through Scotland and back down to London. At Balmoral, they'll pick up the Prince and Princess.

Things get more exciting for Hal when he discovers a stowaway just his age on the train.  It takes him a bit to track her down, but once he does, they're fast friends. 

Uniting them is a desire to solve the mystery of who is stealing jewelry from other travelers.  Once the Prince and Princess join the train, a huge necklace called the Atlas Diamond is in danger as well.

Hal comes to love the train as he sees it from his friend's behind the scenes point of view.

His uncle, a travel journalist who specializes in old train journeys turns out to be fantastic and a good friend to the boy.

As if things weren't thrilling enough, Lenny and her father are accused of the thefts. Hal forces himself to face his fears, scaling the moving train to try to free Lenny and prove her innocence.

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Trixie Belden #3 The Gatehouse Mystery by Julie Campbell

 

The Wheeler's large property includes an old abandoned Gatehouse that the girls and Bobby decide to explore.

Bobby rushes in the doorway before he can be stopped. He trips and lands on a sharp piece of glass that turns out to be a diamond.  It's not even buried, it was just lying non the surface of the dirt floor.

Naturally Trixie speculates that jewel thieves dropped it here, and will be back for it.  She wants to hold onto the diamond till they can figure out who the thieves are, and why they were here.  Honey reluctantly agrees and says she has a safe place for it.

Suddenly both girls hear a rustling in the shrubbery outside the Gatehouse and as they run out to see who has been listening, the person gets away.

Trixie's brothers are back from camp, and they're all in for trying to solve the mystery as well, and capture the thieves.  This is the first time we meet smart aleck Mart and cool headed Brian.  They're perfect additions to the group we know of Trixie, Honey and Jim.  Everyone brings something useful to the solving of mysteries.

Two suspicious new hires are watched carefully in case they're the thieves.  All possible clues are examined.  A club is formed and the Gatehouse is eyed as a possible club house.

I mostly enjoyed the introduction of the brothers to the group, and how easily everyone got along right away.  The mystery of the jewel thieves was intriguing though one of the thieves gave himself away pretty quickly.