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Ken Holt #4
The Clue of the Marked Claw
What was going on at the exclusive resort on Skeleton Island which looked so peaceful out there in the Bay during the daytime? Why did the freighter Louise always sail empty from her pier? This first KH in a brand new series gives you the answer to these and many other questions before Ken and Sandy solve one of the most baffling mysteries of the day.
- GenresMystery
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1950
30 people want to read
About the author
Bruce Campbell
18 books3 followersBruce Campbell is a pseudonym used by the husband-and-wife team of Sam and Beryl William Epstein for their Ken Holt mysteries.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 16, 2019
rocks--did not think of that
new word learned (yay!): binnacle;
now, if i can just remember it
p104: suddenly that car swerved to the left and speeded up to shoot around a slowly moving vehicle.
p147: and when, a few weeks later, they innocently stopped their red convertible to offer a ride to a weary hitchhiker, they were again--without meaning to--letting themselves in for the trouble that came to be known as the secret of the coiled cobra.
new word learned (yay!): binnacle;
now, if i can just remember it
p104: suddenly that car swerved to the left and speeded up to shoot around a slowly moving vehicle.
p147: and when, a few weeks later, they innocently stopped their red convertible to offer a ride to a weary hitchhiker, they were again--without meaning to--letting themselves in for the trouble that came to be known as the secret of the coiled cobra.
November 6, 2020
This is the fourth book in the Ken Holt series, a young man who's frequently embroiled in solving mysteries and having adventures with his friend Sandy Allen. This isn't one of the better books of the series; it has an oddly paced and convoluted plot, and a general rushed feeling. Ken and Sandy go for a vacation trip to the beach at the invitation of Sandy's friend Ted Bateson. They become embroiled in the mystery of the missing lobsters, some over-long automobile chases, and some serious sleuthing is required to sort it all out... but they prevail, of course, just in time for the next adventure.
December 21, 2025
I have six collections of Grosset & Dunlap series, and some years ago this became the sixth. I have nine of the eighteen published, as Ken Holts are not that common in the places I search for books, but perhaps someday I’ll complete this series. Anyway, I’m wrapping my 2025 with at least one read from each - Tom Swift, To. swift Jr., Tom Corbett, Tom Quest (lots of Toms), Rick Brandt, and this.
Not at all as fantastical as the Tom’s, these are a good intro to mysteries. Ken and his sidekick Sandy get into troubles, but Ken is t always the one to save the day, nor is anything outside the reality of the times. Sam and Beryl Epstein, writing as Bruce Campbell, did a good job keeping these grounded. Per Beryl, Sam wrote the “technical chapters” and she wrote the “‘blah’ ones in between”. The technical details were informative and not over the heads of the 11-15 year old target audience, and the “blah” parts not actually blah. Everything (so far, through book four) is plausible and that’s nice done. Moving on to … spin of the wheel … Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.
Not at all as fantastical as the Tom’s, these are a good intro to mysteries. Ken and his sidekick Sandy get into troubles, but Ken is t always the one to save the day, nor is anything outside the reality of the times. Sam and Beryl Epstein, writing as Bruce Campbell, did a good job keeping these grounded. Per Beryl, Sam wrote the “technical chapters” and she wrote the “‘blah’ ones in between”. The technical details were informative and not over the heads of the 11-15 year old target audience, and the “blah” parts not actually blah. Everything (so far, through book four) is plausible and that’s nice done. Moving on to … spin of the wheel … Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.
July 14, 2021
Another great adventure that might even take place today (except that you can't find many lobsters in Long Island Sound now because of global warming). Lobster wars are a real thing that happens up in Maine and Canada. And, well, other types of crimes always are happening. I really enjoy this series. Most of the stories aren't completely wild but still full of excitement and great escapism.
August 6, 2016
The fourth adventure of the pairing of Holt and Allen takes our two protagonists to the town of Eastend, on the south shore of Long Island, New York. A mystery (naturally) soon develops, when a case of lobster pirating turns out to be a little more complicated than a simple case of one fisherman’s thieving tendencies.
The plot in MARKED CLAW is contrived and over-elaborate, and barely passes Hitchcock’s ‘icebox logic’ test, insofar as much as any doubts about the plot convolutions surface barely as soon as the book is finished. This maybe because there is a lot to digest here, not least the mental gymnastics needed to picture the layout of Eastend and associated bay, harbor, inlet, headland, and other geographical elements. Sadly, the authors (SAM & BERYL EPSTEIN) do not describe these features with the same pin-point precision and clarity as they did with the locales in previous entries.
There are many scenes that are both evocative and dramatic: trips out to sea under cover of both darkness and fog tick the first box, while the escape from the Live Lobster restaurant (very ably depicted on the cover by Bill Gilles) ticks the latter.
Some missteps knock a star off my rating: these include the convoluted plot, the rather cluttered, over-baked and rambling car chase scene, and the disappointing denouement, in which the reader is robbed of the vicarious thrill of seeing the bad guys get their ‘just desserts’ as happened in the first three novels.
MARKED CLAW is a fun and atmospheric read, but it definitely 'marks' a slight downturn in the wake of the three preceding adventures of Ken and Sandy.
The plot in MARKED CLAW is contrived and over-elaborate, and barely passes Hitchcock’s ‘icebox logic’ test, insofar as much as any doubts about the plot convolutions surface barely as soon as the book is finished. This maybe because there is a lot to digest here, not least the mental gymnastics needed to picture the layout of Eastend and associated bay, harbor, inlet, headland, and other geographical elements. Sadly, the authors (SAM & BERYL EPSTEIN) do not describe these features with the same pin-point precision and clarity as they did with the locales in previous entries.
There are many scenes that are both evocative and dramatic: trips out to sea under cover of both darkness and fog tick the first box, while the escape from the Live Lobster restaurant (very ably depicted on the cover by Bill Gilles) ticks the latter.
Some missteps knock a star off my rating: these include the convoluted plot, the rather cluttered, over-baked and rambling car chase scene, and the disappointing denouement, in which the reader is robbed of the vicarious thrill of seeing the bad guys get their ‘just desserts’ as happened in the first three novels.
MARKED CLAW is a fun and atmospheric read, but it definitely 'marks' a slight downturn in the wake of the three preceding adventures of Ken and Sandy.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews