Why did a first-edition Book of Mormon wind up in an old Catholic mission in San Diego? What clues does it contain to a mysterious past? And why is Dr. Anthony interested?
The Andrews family is off on another exciting quest, and once again, clues in the scriptures lead to mystery and adventure. Watch your kids run for their copies of the Book of Mormon to follow along!
C. B. Andersen holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Brigham Young University and is a software engineer at Novell. A former member of the Mormon Youth Symphony, he enjoys music and teaches cello. His first published novel was The Book of Mormon Sleuth. He and his wife, Shari Lynn Tillery Andersen, have 6 children and live in Orem, Utah.
Clever and entertaining. Written to probably a tween level. Mr. Andersen does a great job of putting in spiritual material without being preachy in a greate adventure.
I've found recently that LDS authors seem to have a tough time creating their characters without getting preachy about beliefs. The author does a great job of creating an entertaining adventure with elements from the gospel and the scriptures included without becoming pretentious and preachy. Many times it feels like the story is secondary to the preaching. Not so with the Book of Mormon Sleuth.
Admittedly, the framework for the Book of Mormon sleuthing is a little contrived, but the story progresses well, and ended up being a very enjoyable, very readable adventure.
This, the last book, was exciting and suspenseful to see what would happen to Dr. Anthony, who had appeared in many/all of the Andrews family's vacations and stirred them up. This time he is supposedly "helping" translate a journal from an old mission. The family is visiting a character from past visits, and he happens to be the one uncovering the mission. The two older boys find a mine in it and need to tell the others before Anthony does find out, or if he does know, stop him from stealing and what other plans he has.
At first this book was hard for me to get interested in, and it is semi-cheesy throughout the book. But the end of the book is really good! It was really interesting and I couldn't put it down at the end.