Flashing Mountain - a Children's Press Mystery

It's been a bit since I last read a mystery from The Children's Press, and this one was picked up for my by a friend of mine from a library in Canada.  I don't often see many of The Children's Press books here in the States, and most of the ones I have came from beyond our borders.  This one is authored by Edwin Johnson, who wrote a couple of other books for this publisher, with titles such as The End of Project 38 and The Devil of Bruges.  With these kind of titles, one would think the books were aimed at adults, rather than young adults or older children; however, all three of these books were published by The Children's Press, and as such, were marketed for young readers.  I did find a number of other books by "Edwin Johnson," but I have a feeling this name is associated with different authors, as the topics range from Christianity and the origins of the Christian religion to poetry to books about sexy Asian girls.  I cannot, for the life of me, imagine all of these varied subjects were written by the same Edwin Johnson!

 

That being said, Flashing Mountain follows the adventures of fifteen-year old Charles "Chip" Wood, an orphaned young lad living with his already overworked aunt, who has her hands full with her own family.  Despite attempts to stay under the radar, Chip ends up on the run from a gang of bullies and ultimately finds himself saving the life of one Dr. Mandrake, an archeologist with a special mission, to assist a physicist friend who needs to borrow some specialized electronic equipment for a discovery he has made.  Chip joins Mandrake on a ship bound for an island off the coast of South America - to an island known as "The Island of the Four Apostles" (p. 26), or as it is referred to in French, "L'Ile des Quatre Apotres."  This is likely based upon the Ilots des Apotres (Apostle Islets), which in the real world are some uninhabited rocky islands located in the southern part of the Indian Ocean (south east of the southern tip of Africa - they are nowhere near South America, as the island in the book is).  In the book, Johnston indicates the name "comes from four hills at the north of the island," named by a shipwrecked Frenchman who was so thankful for not perishing in the wreck that he named the hills for the apostles (p. 26).  Of course, the mission turns out to be much more dangerous than originally anticipated.

 

Before they even arrive at the island, they learn the man Mandrake is supposed to meet is dead.  They also discover there are two men on the boat with them who are determined to learn what the scientist's discovery was and get to it before Mandrake can.  Thus, from the beginning, the reader knows it is going to be a race to see who can solve the mystery of what the scientist discovered first.  Mandrake and Chip must not only deal with the president of the people on the island, but they must also contend with a wealthy treasure-hunter who has basically taken control of the island in the hopes of uncovering the scientist's secret, as well as a group of revolutionists who want the interlopers gone and also want to overthrow the president!  With the help of some unexpected allies, Chip and Mandrake manage to escape after being captured and make their way through the jungles to the area known as "flashing mountain" - and they learn exactly what the scientist discovered and why that mountain has the name it does!

 

This is definitely a boys' adventure story, as it is chock full of adventure and danger for our main characters.  It also does not shy away from violence and death - even some very gruesome deaths that involve melting faces!  There are also deadly natives on the island, and mysterious legends regarding the formation of the island and the hills.  The climatic scenes where Chip uses his ingenuity to destroy the flashing mountain, ensuring that no one would ever be able to mine what the mountain was hiding (and trust me, considering what it was, Chip definitely did the right thing!) - and in the process, he causes the deaths of two of the bad guys.  Certainly not something you would ever read in a Stratemeyer series book, that's for sure!

 

Sadly, there are no internal illustrations (in fact, I don't believe any of the books I own that were published by "The Children's Press" have internals), and there is no identifying information for the artist who painted the cover.  The scene depicted on the cover is somewhat misleading - it comes from that final chapter, where Chip sets off explosives to cause the destruction of the flashing mountain, however, Chip and the man helping him were wearing considerable protective gear (otherwise, they would have been melted down, just like some of those natives had been!).  I guess showing the main character completely covered from head to toe would not make a great cover, so they simply placed Chip at the scene in his regular clothing.

 

As someone who much prefers mystery stories to adventure stories, this book was not overly captivating to me.  Sure, it had plenty of adventure and chapter cliffhangers; but the lack of mystery just made me want to speed through it and get finished with it so I could move on to another book.  This book would probably be enjoyed more by those who like Tom Swift, Rick Brant, Ken Holt, or series such as that.

 

RATING:  6 small ticking boxes out of 10 for an adventure story filled with more danger and death at ever turn than most young adult stories I've read!