The Third Enchantment Lake Mystery - The Silver Box

Okay, time to take one last trip into the world of Enchantment Lake and follow young Francesca (Francie) Frye (a/k/a "French Fry" or "little Frenchie") as she tries to discover just what happened to her mother, who was presumed dead.  In the first book of this series, Francie helps her aunts solve the mystery of who is forcing people around the lake to sell their properties.  In the second book, Francie must help clear her brother's name of a murder that he did not commit.  And along the way, Francie not only rebuilds her relationship with her brother, which was strained for many years, but she also gains bits and pieces of knowledge that strengthens her belief that her mother is not really dead, but out there somewhere.  But, if she's not dead, then why hasn't she come home?  And just what does that mysterious little box that keeps popping up have to do with it?  Well, in this final book of the trilogy, all these secrets come to light!

The Silver Box opens as Francie and her friends are ready to return to return home and get back to their classes and finish school.  But Francie can't shake the feeling that the silver box she found holds more than a clue to what happened to her mother and where she is now.  And, so, right off the bat, author Margi Preus takes Francie and her friend Raven (along with the readers) on a tramp through the snow-covered woods, where the two girls find a ramshackle cabin that brings back some flashes of memories for Francie.  Of course, we don't stay there long, because it's back to school for Francie, Raven, and Jay.  The mystery of Francie's mother, though, follows her to Walpurgis, and Francie soon finds herself in a whole world of trouble and danger - particularly after she sneaks away from a school field trip, gets into a car with a complete stranger, and ends up at the greenhouse of a very eccentric man who claims to know the answers about Francie's missing mother - but he will only share them if she provides him with the contents of that silver box - a box that Francie has only recently figured out how to open (and which was disappointingly empty).

Then the plant man winds up dead.  And the silver box goes missing.  And Francie is sent by her grandfather to go live with her aunts in Arizona. And a mysterious woman at a nursing home provides some cryptic stories about the past.  And Theo gets kidnapped.  And Francie sets out to play a deadly game of sleight of hand that could get both her and Theo killed!  There's definitely not a moment's respite within this story, as Francie finds herself in danger in pretty much each and every chapter, hiding in closets, running across ice, snowshoeing through the forest, and getting chased by snowmobiles.

The ultimate revelations regarding the silver box and what it contains, as well as why its contents are so important that people are willing to kill for it, is a bit anticlimactic.  Honestly, I was expecting something a bit more exciting or complicated; but, I guess sometimes, it is the simple things in life that can cause a lot of problems.  Of course, I must say that Preus provides several surprises with regard to the woman in the nursing home, the ramshackle cottage, and the secret stash that everyone seems so desperate to get their hands on that made me smile.  A purely genius way to making sure the criminals not only never got their hands on the goods, but also to prevent the big corporations from achieving their goal at the cost of the Northwoods that surround Enchantment Lake.  And Preus does manage to get in a couple of Nancy Drew references (after all - when the book advertises itself as a "modern Nancy Drew," you've got to count on the fact that everyone's favorite sleuth will be referenced somehow in the story).

The only part of the story that I felt did not get resolved was the triangle (of sorts) with Francie, Sandy, and Nels.  From the past two books, it has been obvious that Sandy likes Francie, but Francie likes Nels, and Nels likes Francie.  And while Preus briefly touches on both Sandy and Nels in the book, there is no real conclusion or resolution to that story (and who knows?  maybe that means Preus will bring back the characters for another trilogy, which will give this particular story a chance to grow!).  But otherwise, Francie finally finds out what happened to her mother, what the big secret is inside the box, what secrets her brother and grandfather have been keeping from her, and the memories of her childhood that have always seemed just outside her grasp.  So, readers are left with a satisfying conclusion to the Enchantment Lake mysteries, with the wish that it wasn't the end...

RATING:  10 duck nests out of 10 for enchanting readers with a world of mystery, danger, and adventure that makes for an amazingly satisfying read!