Mystery at Lake Placid

Screech Owls #1

by Roy MacGregor

Travis Lindsay, his best friend, Nish, and all their pals on the Screech Owls hockey team, are on their way to New York for an international peewee tournament. Excitement builds in the team van on the way to Lake Placid. First there are the entertaining antics of their trainer, Mr. Dillinger - then there's the prospect of playing on an Olympic rink, in a huge arena, knowing there will be scouts in the stands.

But they have barely arrived when things start to go wrong. Their star center, Sarah, plays badly from lack of sleep. Next Travis gets knocked down in the street. And then someone starts tampering with equipment. It looks as if someone is trying to sabotage the Screech Owls. But who? And why? And can Travis and the others stop the destruction before the decisive game of the tournament?

Genres: Sports, Mystery, Hockey, Canada, Childrens, Middle Grade, Juvenile

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Roy MacGregor is a Canadian author of fiction and non-fiction.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Screech Owls mystery, the first and one of the best for sure. It has everything you might want: good hockey, nice characterization and character development, and a low-key plot compared to the later books. What I like about this is it’s a very accurate depiction of being twelve that you almost never see in middle grade, where the boys try to watch porn on their hotel TV and steal cigarette butts off the ground. I can see some parents getting upset about it, but they need to get a life I think.

[Aiden Rodriguez-Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was really nice! The book takes place around where we are and I really enjoyed it.

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an odd one, it combines a young reader mystery novel with hockey and the hockey writing is knowledgable and well done. However the mystery element was flat, predictable and they spent just as much on the resolution and whether or not they should forgive or not forgive the guilty person...and that got annoying.

I didn't like the identity politics, making sure to have one of every ethnicity on the team that you can think of...it reduced most of the characters to their race or their sex. Just reads like a novelty act, i'm just sick of it. Yes we get it anyone can play hockey and we don't need a "team united nations" to get that across.

Speaking of sex there was too much talk of it in this book for children. There was a running plotline where one of the kids is trying to rig the hotel tv to get access to the blocked adult channels. I'm sure something like this has happened before but it's totally unneccesary to be added to the story. A kids hockey book doesn't need a sex obsessed character. They even had a weird feminist moment where the girls on the team insist on being allowed to try to watch the porn with the boys. I'm knocking a whole star off the book for this, that's the girl power moment you want to promote to kids...young girls can watch porn too? Weird, unhinged, creepy... gross not a point to be making with children. Honestly soured the book for me.

It also meandered and went on too long. overall ok.

[David Larson]

Why I chose to read this book.
I chose this book to read because I had to read a book for my english class. It was available for me and was not super long so it was the one I chose.

Praise:
There was a wide variety of characters in this book and they were all unique. The author did a good job of providing a confusing mystery. You weren’t sure who the culprit was for almost the entire story. The wide diversity of characters helped distract from who could have been causing all the chaos.

Critique:
There wasn’t very much backstory on the team or the kids other than they played in other tournaments. They also didn’t talk much about the actual games that were the reason they were there.

Overall thoughts:
I think it was a good book, it was very easy to read and was decently entertaining. There is a lot of focus on the relationships between the kids and coaches. It also shows how differently the kids and parents react to having big issues at tournaments like these.

Recommendation:
It was a good book and I would recommend reading it if you have time.

[Bohdan Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remembered seeing these books around school as a kid, not sure if I ever read any of them though.

Was a totally fine kid’s book. I appreciated how it layered in lessons of team building as well as equality without making it the main story.

For a kids book, I thought it did a good job of the “mystery” part, setting up 2 plausible culprits and then revealing the true third one near the end.

[Erika Bertuzzi jamieson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack’s rating: 3 and 3/4 stars

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotta love when childhood books hold up.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story with low stakes, finished in a couple hours. Big nostalgia factor for me here, I read these when I was a little kid and it brings back memories of my own team

[Atley]

it was good

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was really interesting and i wanted to read it everytime I picked it up

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book I read for my son at bedtime, since he plays inline hockey. This story centers on the Screech Owls, a travel ice hockey team from Canada. They are entered into a tournament in Lake Placid, NY. In their first game, they run across a nasty team from Toronto, with two really good players--a lunky Center (or centre, as Mr. MacGregor writes) who is just plain mean and a small defenseman who is quick and respectful. Throughout the tournament, bad things happen to the Screech Owls' number one center, and star player, Sarah Cuthbertson. It is up to the Screech Owls to not only figure out what is happening but also to persevere and defeat the Toronto team to win the tournament. The hero of the story is Travis Lindsay, a winger on the number on line with Sarah Cuthbertson. He is also an Associate Captain of the team, and ends up earning the trust of his coach, Muck.

I enjoyed reading this one. The story itself was very good; it was complex enough with enough going on to pique my interest. I figured out who the actual culprit was about halfway through the book, but there were a number of red herrings thrown out there to make it interesting and make me wonder whether I actually was correct right up to the moment of disclosure. Ultimately, this is a story about redemption, about making mistakes and overcoming them.

And, Muck just gave me my mantra for next year's teams: Hockey is a game of mistakes. You have to capitalize on your opponents' mistakes and overcome your own.

Actually, that is probably a good mantra for life, as well...

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are great chapter books for kids who like Hockey!! What fun books with mysteries that are appropriate for kids 9 and up!

Each book has a an exciting hockey game and a mystery to solve. The characters in the books are very relateable for kids of this age and engaging. I love that their are both boys and girls on the team and they all contribute!

The stories also contain lessons on teamwork, sportsmanship and friendship! Terrific lessons for all kids!

There are a few times when I thought the content was a bit off for the age, but then when you compare it to modern video games, movies and tv shows, it was mild. Kids today are ages ahead of their past counterparts and these books reflect that.

Hockey fans will find a lot to love here. The play-by-play is really fun to read even for non-sporties like myself.

Cover Art - Eye catching and easy to tell the theme of the books.

Disclosure: This ebook was provided to me free of charge through NetGalley for the sole purpose of an honest review. All thoughts, comments, and ratings are my own.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read this series for years now and I'm so glad I finally did! They're excellent! Good plot, delightful (and realistic) characters, and a good dose of humour. I appreciate the fact that they can teach a "lesson" without heavy handed moralizing.

I would definitely recommend Mystery at Lake Placid to young boys (and girls interested in sports) despite it being almost twenty years old. I think it's stood the test of time better that a lot of kids books!

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read the entire Screech Owls series about 5 times. This is the first book and it follows a Canadian peewee hockey team to Lake Placid, New York for a tournament but shortly after they get there, things just keep going wrong. This book, as well as the rest of the series, is funny, action packed and all around great!

[Amanda McGill · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite series from when I was younger! I reread the first novel as part of the 2015 Reading Challenge and I loved it! I loved the mystery aspect and I still have the biggest crush on Travis!
I would recommend this series to any children who loves sports (especially hockey).

[Teebz Hbic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review for Mystery at Lake Placid can be found on Hockey Blog In Canada.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read for kids that love hockey!

[Kalle Eriksson]

Dessa böcker är aaaalldeles för mycket nostalgi för att jag ska kunna ge ett någorlunda "rättvist" 1-5-betyg. Nästan 20 år senare var det dock fortfarande underhållande, och det får väl ses som ett gott betyg.