ALA Booklist (Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

Sent to his father's when his mother has to leave on a business trip, 15-year-old Matt is not totally surprised to discover his disorganized dad gone. But soon the mystery thickens, and when Matt arrives at his aunt's (as directed by a cryptic message), he finds himself in the midst of a sprawling scenario that includes a golem, ancient civilizations, secrets of a Knights Templar-like organization, and a quest that hops across continents and millennia. This British import can't be read too closely (it's filled with all sorts of logical questions that have no answers), and sometimes the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mix of events is as confusing as it is exciting. But the adventure is nonstop, and the intriguing combination of computers and long-forgotten knowledge will have readers turning pages to find out how it all comes out. YAs who liked Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code (2003) may like this.

Kirkus Reviews

Matt Stribling is used to his divorced parents shuttling him back and forth on school vacations. But he'd rather be surfing the Internet at home than spending a dull holiday with his absent-minded archaeologist father, who didn't even remember to pick him up at the train station. Things don't stay dull for long, however, when he receives a coded message and realizes that he's being watched. Part of the message translates into "LTF"—a clue from his dad that means "Let's Find Treasure!" The pace picks up speed as the puzzle unravels, with clues that take Matt and his new friend Robin globe-hopping from England to Denmark to the rain forest of Brazil. But they're not the only ones looking for the treasure; this isn't a game, and the treasure isn't mere gold or jewels. Mixing the supernatural with an action-adventure theme, this is a race that will capture the reader's attention and keep them turning pages long after lights out. (Fiction. 12-15)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Let’s Find Treasure,” the catchphrase from Richards’s (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Death Collector) mystery/thriller, seems emblematic of this novel’s excited tone. Like <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Grimpow (reviewed above), this story, too, utilizes numerous conventions à la Dan Brown’s <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Da Vinci Code—cryptic messages, coded clues, historical arcane societies, etc.—but here these feel somewhat derivative. The storyline revolves around 15-year-old Matt Stribling who, in search of his missing archeologist father, becomes entangled in a globe-hopping quest. The goal: to find an ancient treasure that, if unearthed by the wrong people, could potentially destroy the world. Initially, Stribling and two allies—millionaire Julius Venture and his precocious daughter Robin—set out to find the lost treasure of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, a legendary cache of scrolls and relics that supposedly holds the “knowledge held secret by the ancients.” But as the search takes the group from the jungles of Brazil to a remote Scandinavian island, the scope of the mysterious “knowledge” expands to include the lost continent of Atlantis, elemental magic and quantum entanglement. The action never stops, but the glut of two-dimensional characters and more than a few highly implausible exploits (Matt figures out a computer’s complex password after just a few tries) weaken the suspense. Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)