EDITOR: Comp review for your immediate use!
The Great Train Mystery
A hijacked train headed across the country. An embittered servant of an industry scion. Stolen family documents. A golden puzzle piece. A forgotten heirloom map. Sound like an old-time Western? Think again! Add in a couple of crime-stopping kids and you have the latest addition to an award-winning series by a writer who never fails to surprise us!
The Great Train Mystery, the latest installment in Marsh’s beloved Real Kids! Real Places! educational mystery series, follows Christina and Grant, Marsh’s grandchildren and the stars of her books, on a cross-country train ride. Their train, the General, belongs to Papa’s friend, the wealthy Mr. Goodfellow. After learning that the Goodfellow family business is headed for financial ruin, the kids (including Mr. Goodfellow’s grandkids) start noticing some curious happenings aboard the General and someone starts leaving the kids pieces of a long-lost map.
The Great Train Mystery, released in January 2012, is a high-speed adventure appropriately paced for young readers, with all the necessary spooky and fun detours; is there a ghost on the train? Or a thief? Does a talking parrot have the answers? What happens when you camp out at Chimney Rock? And just where is this train headed?
The energy, the humor, and the intrigue Marsh puts into her books are all present and more; the action races onward with the train as the puzzle piece clues fall into place. Marsh never waivers from her mission: to educate and entertain, making this an excellent choice for kids and their teachers.
[Reviewer’s note: A train-themed book immediately appeals to boys, but this book does not leave the girls out. Christina, Marsh’s no-nonsense mystery-solving granddaughter conducts this investigation, with the help of her little brother Grant and a few friends along for the ride.]
The Great Train Mystery is available from
Amazon.com and most retailers.
Paperback, $7.99, 160 pp
Accelerated Reader, Ages 7-14.
Also available as eBook.
