Book Review: The Jinson Twins, Science Detectives, and the Mystery of Echo Lake by Steven L. Zeichner
Disclosure: I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway in the understanding that I would write a review of it.
Debbie and Joe Jinson, twins, decide to make some summer money by doing odd jobs. They are soon contacted by a Mrs. Gray, who needs her overstuffed basement sorted as she may need to move soon. It turns out that her late husband supposedly had a hidden treasure somewhere, but Mrs. Gray has never been able to figure out the clues.
Debbie is soon dragging her brother on a quest to find the treasure, along with a friendly and wise junkman. Whether or not the treasure really exists, someone seems to not want them to track it down!
This is the author’s first fiction book, designed to teach kids about scientific principles in the setting of a mystery.
The science part is pretty good, working plausibly into the plot and well explained with helpful diagrams.
The fiction part not so much. This is one book that could really have benefited from being in tight third person rather than first person, especially as it switches to third person in the middle of sentences a few times, most noticeably in the last chapter.
The in media res opening could use more punch–perhaps picking a more suspenseful moment might have helped.
May or may not be a bug; the two descriptions of the treasure’s backstory don’t quite match up, and I was left to wonder if the character was fibbing during one of the sequences, or the author forgot to go back and check for consistency.
Younger readers might be more forgiving, but I was thrown out of the story multiple times by the narration, which is simultaneously wordy and trying to sound properly immature.
I handed this book off to my young nieces, but I don’t expect they’ll be asking for seconds.
