Horn Book (Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 1997)

There's action aplenty in this story set in the Pacific Northwest of 1874--shipwreck, murder, hidden treasure. Unfortunately, history and mystery seem less well blended than one would expect from the author of 'Far North', but it's still not a bad read.

ALA Booklist (Thu May 01 00:00:00 CDT 1997)

Hobbs really knows how to please his readers. This time he's created an exciting historical adventure touched with a real mystery and set in a remote, exotic locale. To that, he's added Spanish treasure, a nasty villain and his quirky companion, and lots of action. What a read! Fourteen-year-old Nathan MacAllister helps his father tend a lighthouse off the northwest coast of Washington State. When his mother's health fails, he moves with her to the Makah village on the mainland, hoping the slightly drier climate will speed her recovery. From the moment he arrives, it's clear that something strange is going on: the captain of a wrecked ship has been murdered, someone is hiding in the caves around the coast, money and supplies have been stolen, and there's a mysterious stranger around. As Nathan unravels the puzzling goings-on, he discovers that he has endangered himself. As always, Hobbs delivers well-developed characters and a plot that never falters. Here, he also provides a respectful view of Indian life through Nathan's eyes. (Reviewed May 1, 1997)

School Library Journal

YA--A collection of 70 first-hand news reports filed by some of the finest correspondents of the era, such as Ernie Pyle, Walter Cronkite, Richard Tregaskis, and Bob Considine. The sense of immediacy and high drama come through the writing, and will make history students feel as though they are a part of the waiting, the decision making, or the action. The description of hundreds of people sitting on Waikiki Beach to watch the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, is just one of the fascinating details in the book. Journalism students will see how the flowery and openly emotional writing of that time contrasts with today's objective style. These wartime reporters did not sacrifice high standards to file their stories quickly, nor did they ever reveal sensitive security information. This is a natural for booktalking, and for sharing with history classes and school newspaper staffs.--Judy Sokoll, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Kirkus Reviews

Hobbs (Beardream, p. 462, etc.), setting his novel on Washington's Cape Flattery in 1874, presents a hero who not only has the intelligence to solve a murder, but the resources to help bring a killer to justice. Nathan MacAllister, 14, has a fairly exciting life as a de facto assistant lighthouse keeper to his father, retired Captain Zachary MacAllister. When not tending the lighthouse, Nathan looks after his sick mother and fishes with a friend, Lighthouse George, a Makah fisherman. When a sailing ship, the L.S. Burnaby, crashes on the rocks near the lighthouse, and the captain's murdered body washes ashore, Nathan becomes an amateur sleuth. At first, he believes (as the Makah do) that an evil spirit is at work, but certain events—his neighbor, Captain Bim, burying a treasure box at night, the discovery of a skeleton in a Makah canoe hanging in the treetops, the appearance of a charismatic yet strange new shopkeeper, Mr. Kane—lead Nathan to sensibly conclude that the mystery has more to do with real people than ghosts. While the mystery is compelling, it is Hobbs's deft weaving of Makah culture into the story that resonates, from their harvesting of wood without cutting any trees to their generosity to friends. A robust adventure in an intriguing setting. (map) (Fiction. 11-13)"