Ghost Hunters Adventure Club and the Secret of the Grande Chateau

Ghost Hunters Adventure Club #1

by Cecil H.H. Mills

THE FIRST OFFICIAL NOVEL FROM GAME GRUMPS

Listen up, kid. My name is Dr. Cecil H.H. Mills. I’m the author of this book and many other ones that you might not have heard of. This book is about two idiot wannabe detective-types. Their names are J.J. and Valentine Watts, but I’m not sure if they’re actually brothers or not.

They make a friend; her name is Trudi de la Rosa. She’s a wannabe detective-type too, but honestly, she’s less of an idiot than the brothers.

The three of them team up to solve a mystery that takes place in a snowy chateau up in the mountains. It gets more complicated around chapter 11, but now you’ve got the main gist of it. The story’s full of intrigue and adventure and puzzles and light violence and some swear words. It’s really entertaining.

Just buy the book and start reading. You’ll understand everything about the Ghost Hunters Adventure Club very soon.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Audiobook, Fiction, Comedy, Humor, Mystery Thriller

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 2020

Reviews

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so over-the-top and idiotic in the best way and I laughed out loud so many times.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy of this book and agreed to write an honest review.

The book was really fun and full of great jokes and references. It turns the classic Hardy Boys style mystery on its head and incorporates a metaphysical element of the authors presence that reminded in certain ways of Ítalo Calvino’s If on a winters night a traveler (a bit different) but nonetheless, this meta piece was f’ing rad and gave a breath and humor to the novel that I loved.

I think this could be a great setup for a wonderful and fun series of books centered around The Ghost Hunters Adventure Club. Will keep my eyes peeled for more!

[Ron]

Thank God for the corona virus, it forced me to relax and listen to my son as he read aloud parts of this book, hilarious! Thank God the virus has lasted long enough to finish this book, lots of fun, starting with the cover that looks like a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew edition to the “letters from the readers”. Please Dr. Cecil H. H. Mills, grace us with another book soon!

[Katy Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Get the audio book it’s so much better to hear it read with perfect voice acting and comedic timing. Truly enjoyed this work.

[Callie Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Self-aware and charming and 100% absolutely an enjoyable amount of ridiculousness

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, who would have thought writing a review for a YA mystery from the Game Grumps would be hard.

I hated 80% of it. So, really it should be a 1 star, but there was this 10-20% that I did really like, and I'll go into it a bit. I just wish that it was more like 50/50 in the book. I didn't want to read it for the majority of the time that I read it. I kept checking how many pages I had left and getting the urge to put it down for anything better.

My biggest issue is that the mystery sucked. It just wasn't very well written and the characters were one dimensional and extremely campy. Imagine a decorated police officer telling an 18 year old he would throat punch him in a normal tone. It doesn't flow as well as it does on a YouTube show like Game Grumps. The final solution was probably in line with a Scooby Doo mystery solution, but I just felt like it was a cop out.

Now, the 10-20% that I loved was when Dr. Cecil H.H. Holmes inserted himself into the novel. Unfortunately, those parts are riddled with spoilers so I won't go into specifics. But I will say that my greatest enjoyment came from the chapter "Interlude." And there is an FAQ at the back, which actually was better than the rest of of the book combined. Maybe they need to harness that raw energy to write the next one, if there is a next one.

I guess I would recommend it to Game Grumps fans, as they might be the best ones to read and understand the type of humor used. I'm curious what someone who has never heard of the Grumps would think. It just seems like a bad book written for a quick publish, but then again, that is kind of the "bit" of the book, if you ask Dr. H.H. Holmes at least. And I guess it is like some of the Nancy Drew books and Scooby Doo shows I've encountered in terms of how fast things move, how little is ever discovered, and how guessable everything is. I just wanted more from this novel than it could give.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fun read! The Game Grumps (sorry, I mean DR. MILLS) did a great job.

[Owen Townend · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must say, like the good Dr Cecil H.H. Mills, I'm not usually one for young adult mystery novels but this one was well-executed.

Marketed as the first book published by the Game Grumps, a YouTube gaming channel of which I am a firm fan, Ghost Hunters Adventure Club and the Secret of the Grande Chateau is a cheeky send-up of kid detectives such as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. JJ and Valentine Watts are a reliable double act with more ambition than sleuthing skill. Add into the mix the infinitely more capable Trudi de la Rosa and you have a crime fighting team that is almost competent.

I solved the murder mystery plot by the end of the first Act but I did enjoy whenever storytelling switched focus onto the tools required for lock-picking and the intrinsic difference between the Atbash Cipher (e.g. swap the letter A for the letter Z, swap B for Y etc) and the Caesar Cipher (the code key shifts the alphabet forwards or backwards for a specific number of letters). The eventual treasure hunt was also a delight that put me in mind of The Goonies.

That being said the standout parts for me were whenever Dr Mills inserted himself into the plot so that the reader might benefit from his not-at-all embittered wisdom. Out of all the characters featured, his is by far the most entertaining.

I'm very glad that I have read this book and look forward to seeing what other literary ventures the Game Grumps brand creates in future. I recommend Ghost Hunters Adventure Club and the Secret of the Grande Chateau to crime readers with a suitably quirky sense of humour and, of course, fellow 'lovelies'.

[Lannie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The meta for this book is great and fun. I love Dr. Mills and his nephew and his nephew's projects and friends. The meta is also cool in the ARG, which is, as far as I can see, enthralling and well made. As a giant, meta package, this is a four or five to me.

But as a book that you might grab randomly in a library, it's a little weak. Too self aware to have the charm of the Hardy Boys, too adult to appeal strictly to the age of its writing level, and too simplistic to be engaging for anyone else along the fringes. To have a good time, it kind of demands that you know the full story, not just of Game Grumps but also old school YA pulp and Agatha Christie and in-jokes and and and...

I guess for me, this feels like the side dish to a larger meal. This is the cream corn.

I'll definitely read whatever else Dr. Mills makes, and the whole group has my support, but this book was a two, generously.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun, nostalgic, and very stupid. While I liked it I also think the humor got old too quickly. It's not really a YA but definitely not an adult book either, so it's just kind of there. It requires the reader to be familiar with Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys books for the concept to make sense at all, and you probably also need to be familiar with the Grumps to think the meta element is funny.

[Cory Busse · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was...a mistake. It was sold to me as a tongue-in-cheek satire of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. But it was too earnest to be at all funny and too stupid to be meant for anything other than a VERY young young-adult audience (save for the inexplicable use of the word "shit" seemingly at random which only serves to disqualify it for the age group that might actually enjoy it).

[Giarra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Klassische jugendliche Detektivgeschichte mit ordentlich Humor, den ich sehr feiere. Da ich aber die Gamegrumps generell lustig finde alles sehr subjektiv. 😁 Endet leider etwas plötzlich und ist eher flach geschrieben.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little mystery. In the vein of Scooby Doo and Lemony Snicket, it’s very tongue in cheek and a beat for beat mystery novel.


It doesn’t take itself seriously, breaks the 4th wall, and in general is a fast and fun read.

[Ammar Naaimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

You read this book for the jokes and for Arin to do some awwwweeeeeeesome narrator stuff, wow!

It's not often where you quote the author's Q&A at the end of the book to your friends 😂🤣

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been watching the Game Grumps since 2015, or so, and I enjoy their content quite a bit. In a way, they remind me of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but instead of riffing on films, they're riffing on video games. Arin Hanson and Dan Avidan have a great rapport together and it's a joy to watch their videos. Why do I bring this up? Because Ghost Hunters Adventure Club and the Secret of the Grande Chateau is the "first official novel from Game Grumps." Yes, it seems after branching into video games, the duo are branching into the literature world. So, as a fan of Game Grumps, I knew I wanted to give this book a read. But everything about its promotion felt really... strange. It seems pretty obvious that the novel is actually authored by Arin Hanson, yet it's credited to a Cecil H.H. Mills, a man whom Arin claims is his uncle (but is obviously just Hanson in a wig and some makeup). Everything about the book's promotion felt like one of Game Grump's extended bits and, as a lover of books, it made it kind of difficult to get excited for this novel as I could never tell if it was something serious or just a joke. And, having now read the novel, I'm still not sure if it's meant to be taken seriously. If it's supposed to just be a bit of fun that satirizes Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys books and does a bit of fun character work with Cecil H.H. Mills, it's pretty solid. But if it's meant to be taken even a little bit seriously, it's a really rough read.

The main thought I had while reading this is "Surely it's bad on purpose, right?" And I really do think that's the case. Because, honestly, this book isn't great. But it's bad in a really enjoyable way. Everything about it feels cliche as hell, but it feels like Cecil H.H. Mills (or Arin Hanson, whom I strongly suspect actually wrote this book under a pseudonym) has his tongue firmly placed in his cheek and is having a lot of fun writing this book. And that fun definitely shows because it's a really fun read. It moves along at a super brisk pace, the characters are enjoyable enough (though their relationships never feel fully defined and they don't remotely sound like teenagers), and it works reasonably well as a pastiche of Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew-esque mystery novels.

The problem with Ghost Hunters Adventure Club is that it's not a very good mystery. Sure, the setup is a great one: a mysterious and eccentric writer hires the Ghost Hunters Adventure Club to help solve some kind of a mystery at the Grande Chateau, a local hotel for rich people, but before he can even tell them what the mystery is, he's murdered in front of their very eyes. The more the boys investigate the circumstances surround his death, the more it appears he'd called them to hotel intending for them to solve his murder. Sounds like a great setup, right?

The problem is entirely in the execution. Almost immediately, the mystery loses a lot of its interest. The book's pacing is too fast to maintain any sense of mystery. Everything just happens so quickly that it's hard to be invested in what's going on because you're immediately thrown into the next thing. There's no time to play along with the characters because the novel doesn't seem to want you to think about the plot too much. Then there's the fact that the two main characters, J.J. and Valentine, are just not very good detectives. They're idiots. Charming idiots, but idiots nonetheless. And sometimes they're not even that charming. While that could be the starting point for some Get Smart-style shenanigans, the novel never really veers in that direction. It's just filled with narration about how cocky the boys are and how they only manage to stumble onto the correct solutions via sheer luck or with the help of Trudi, an employee at the hotel. And speaking of the solution, I always believe that if the answer to a mystery isn't able to be solved by the reader, then it's not a good answer. And I feel that's the case here. Sure, everyone's a suspect and all that jazz, but the actual culprit is hardly in the book until the big reveal and there's so little evidence to suggest it's them that it really does feel like a hard swerve when they're revealed to be the mastermind behind everything.

But here's where it gets tricky. If we're meant to take Ghost Hunters Adventure Club as a serious work, it's bad. But most of the novel reads like a tongue-in-cheek pastiche of old, pulpy mystery novels. It ticks every box on the list of tropes you'd expect to find in such a story. The mystery is so questionably executed that it reads as more of a parody than an actual mystery. And even the big reveal at the end almost feels like it's mocking something like Scooby-Doo with its big, twisty reveal (although most Scooby-Doo mysteries could actually be solved by an attentive audience member). And this idea that the book is meant to be read as knowingly bad is backed up by the prose itself. The novel features an introduction, an epilogue, and a few interludes from Cecil H.H. Mills himself where he talks about his process and how he's writing the novel and in those sections, he greatly complains about being forced to write this YA detective novel instead of the 1,000+ page piece of serious literature that he wants to write. His self-insertion reads as an author intentionally writing a bad book to stick it to his publisher. I mean, he even inserts himself into the actual story a few times, directly interacting with the characters. That screams a knowing choice. And if the novel is meant to be viewed in that light, then it's rather successful. It's often funny, the parody works pretty well, and it's a nice, brisk read.

So, at the end of the day, whether or not Ghost Hunters Adventure Club is successful depends on what the book is trying to do and how much benefit of the doubt one wants to give to its author. Given that I am familiar with Game Grumps' content and this reads like the kind of joke they'd make, I'm inclined to view the novel favorably. It does read to me as Cecil H.H. Mills/Arin Hanson knowingly writing a bad mystery as a parody of the genre, stuffing it full of silly jokes and ridiculous moments. And, in that context, it works pretty well. I can't say that I was bored while reading this book and it's fairly short length ensured that the joke didn't outstay its welcome. But if the book is meant to actually be a good detective novel, it fails. The characters don't feel defined enough for you to care about them, the plot moves at much too fast a pace to get invested in, and the solution to the mystery isn't one that could've been figured out without already knowing it. Do I recommend this book? Certainly, if you're a fan of Game Grumps and know what you're getting into, or if you just want a light and silly parody of the detective genre. But if you're looking for a good mystery, then you'd be better served elsewhere.

[Josh Nobbe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it! It was super funny and really good storytelling! I highly recommend it if you're looking for a light hearted funny romp!

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edit: I got a signed paperback! And my GHAC membership number is my birthday so it was clearly meant to be

--

Nothing short of extraordinary from the famed Dr. Cecil H.H. Mills. What a master of words, a true writer, a visionary, an exemplary human being.

Okay, but seriously this is a good book. It is clearly a parody of Nancy Drew, Hardy Bros, etc. and it uses that to really make a hilariously fun ride. It's nothing new or groundbreaking, but it's fun.

And I love Game Grumps so much so that might have made me a bit biased.

[Kayla Pitoniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming and endearing parody AND homage to the young adult detective novels of the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys era. I listened to the audio book version and I definitely feel as though it was a better experience than if I would have read it physically. The comedic timing of some narration was paced out the way the author obviously intended the reader to take it and the vocal performance of dialogue really helped land the punchline on most occasions.

Despite the book being very short in length and simple in narrative, I felt the mystery was engaging and the characters worth spending 5 hours with (the length of the audio book). Though it was occasionally difficult to tell character voices apart during the first hour of the audio file, it became much easier and helped feed into the overall feeling and development of the characters and the world they existed in.

I look forward to and hope that more books come from this series.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If this turns out to be a ghost with a gun, I’ll never forgive you.”

This is the stupidest thing I have ever read and I say that in the fondest way possible. It’s the Scary Movie of YA Adventure Club novels.

If you’re gonna give this one a shot, do yourself a favor and go for the audiobook. The humor lands way better. The slip to a new accent for the villain right before the reveal because “I’ve come to a sobering realization that the accent is wrong.” held a lot more of a punch than it would have elsewise and that’s not the only joke that is elevated by listening to it.

I’d likely not be able to finish it in book format, but the audiobook just adds a level of ridiculousness that puts it over that “bad” to “amazing” line.

[Nhi Lam · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars - but I can’t give it 3 stars.
It was a fun read! Really enjoyed the story. I wish though that the editing has been a bit better, as it was noticeable when there were errors and inconsistencies in the book. I do appreciate when things get a bit meta, but then it felt drawn out, sort of like fillers that the book doesn’t need. I also wish that there was a bit more weight to the story, rather than just jokes and gags.
I still had a good time reading it, definitely a good book to read while I was going through a slump.
Even though I gave it a lower rating than my past reads, I still want to check out the second book. I have a feeling it will be better.

[Huntre Gore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Definitely written with some of the Grumps humor. Falls off towards the end, coming off as a bit rushed.

[Jack Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this earlier this year, but it was on audiobook - finally got around to reading it physically! 😁

[Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually really fun. A good laugh and feels like an old hardy boys novel

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly fun

[Cathy Cooksey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a funny satire of old mystery novels like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Nothing too complicated and a quick read, I enjoyed it.

[It'sBrynanas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook of this on YouTube and honestly very grumpy it’s only 4 hours long. Also that there’s only one book in the series.

Very much Goonies vibe. Very much enjoy.

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! If you liked reading You g Adult Mystery Novels in your youth, but thought they took themselves a little too seriously... This is the book for you.

If you are currently a youth? I feel like you'll have a pretty good time.

[Eaycrigg · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun! I spent waaaay too much time looking up YouTube videos of Dr. Cecil and Arin Hansen.

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like a mock of Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew. Pretty hilarious and I'd read more in this series

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I was really hoping I'd love this novel as I'm a GG fan, but unfortunately it really fell short for me. It was definitely aimed toward a younger audience (like around 11-13), which I was not expecting. The plot is a tongue-in-cheek kind of Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew pastiche, but it takes itself a bit too seriously to be considered satire or parody. The plot was fairly bland, and the whodunit aspect was pretty obvious.

I will however say that any time the author inserted himself into the work it gained new life. The interlude, Q&A, and the weird meta moments were definitely the highlights of the book. More of that would be lots of fun.