The Ancient Tripod of Peace

Teen Thief-Catchers #1

by Kalen Cap

Teens Lexi and Gil face relic-thieving secret societies.

Plagued by loneliness in her Lake Erie Islands community, vegan Lexi hopes to make like-minded friends in high school. But her dad’s job is jeopardized when relics are stolen from his museum, changing her priorities. And she finds her new teachers’ eerie dislike of her troubling.

His dad in jail, cipher enthusiast and bacon-loving Gil hopes freshman year will provide a clean slate. Soon, he discovers secret codes within a Shakespearean play while paired with Lexi, pulling him into an ancient mystery.

With the official museum burglary investigation stalled, the mismatched teen sleuths join forces to try and crack the case. Lexi’s inquiries and Gil’s codes capture their teachers’ attention. But these teachers have the stolen Tripod of Peace, a powerful relic sought by rival secret societies. Caught in these societies’ crossfire as thieves wield an instrument of astounding power, Gil and Lexi are in danger.

The Ancient Tripod of Peace is the first book in novelist Kalen Cap’s Teen Thief-Catchers Series. If you like stories with artifact treasures, fighting secret societies, and spirited protagonists, you’ll enjoy this novel.

Genres: Mystery

277 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 13, 2018

About the author

Kalen Cap is a writer living in Columbus, Ohio. Active in animal protection and environmental causes, he often brings such concerns into his fiction writing.

After having a number of poems and short stories published, as well as original plays produced locally, he took up novel writing.

"Tangled Ties to a Manatee" is his debut novel.

Reviews

[Clipinchick]

I this book for free from the author/publisher in response for an honest review of the book. I have not had the opportunity to read this book at this time. I will add my
review of this book once I have read the book. Thank k you for allowing me the optometrist review your work. I look forward to reading this book.

[Andrea]

I am always a sucker for a book that takes place in the state of Ohio, as that is where I was born. I almost relate better to the setting, because I am familiar with it. Add in the idea of a mystery with artifacts and secret codes, and I was completely intrigued.

This story is akin to National Treasure and The DaVinci Code in that ancient codes and secrets are hidden right in front of our faces, and only certain people are able to find them and use them. The difference here is it involves a group of people called the Enlightened Pythagoreans and connections to Shakespeare. It's a totally fascinating idea that I never would have thought of on my own. It's also quite complicated, and I feel like I need to do some additional research to totally understand what is going on here.

The group of kids involved in this mystery are definitely not a group that would normally be hanging out together. Each one of them has their own quirks. They couldn't be more different. And yet they have to work together. Brandon is very much a scaredy-cat. Gil is a massive know-it-all. Lexi is caught up in trying to please everyone and making her mark, while also being concerned about her father's job, and having all kinds of other interesting connections to the stolen artifacts.

Then there are the adults. Dozens of secrets abound and you almost don't know who you can trust. I had a hard time keeping all of the adults and their relationships straight, as well. I found the story both interesting and confusing all at the same time.

The intense knowledge that one must have about the history and these secrets feels like something that most people, let alone teenagers, would know anything about, let alone understand. I sometimes forgot that I was reading about teenagers here and there. Yet for those of you who are really into these quirky conspiracies and history, it won't matter how old you are. You'll want to dive into the mystery and see if you can figure it all out for yourself. It will be interesting to see where these kids go in the future.

I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Joseph M]

The Ancient Tripod of Peace by Kalen Cap is an engaging and detailed crime novel for teen and young adult readers that will also appeal to many older genre fans (myself included) with its plot foci on philosophy, animal protection, and ancient history. The story starts out with a brisk pace which is maintained throughout. A great vacation or summertime book with its lakefront setting.

The “caper”, as it were, occurs in the very first pages, and many of the central mysteries to be solved by the teenaged sleuths are presented right away. The theft that is at the core of the plot is of an ancient artifact by a shadowy organization intent on using the device to further their goals. The first third of the novel is dedicated to introducing simultaneously the cast of characters and their various relationships to the stolen object itself. Later the focus shifts to the organization behind the crime and how the thieves and the catchers are entangled in the web.

The characters, and there are many here, are nicely drawn with distinct personalities and various challenges and talents to bring to the situation. The teenaged principal players bring all the shades of that unique stage of maturation including emerging talents, idealistic values, and navigating relationships. The adult characters, like most adults in the teen world, are frequently riddled with hidden ulterior motives and pasts. Not all adults are bad here and there are also some worthy mentors and protectors.

I definitely recommend this book to teens, young adult and older readers. Some brief and mild dangers and more mature situations are presented which means the material caters towards readers between 12 to 18 years old as well as adult fans of the genre.

So to sum up, this novel offers robust and interesting characters, lots of action, and a plot that keeps you guessing till the end. A great vacation read.

[Tiffany Rose]

I enjoyed this book. I think fans of historical fiction, and thrillers will enjoy it as well. This book centers around three teens doing a school project who have to come up with a code that has to connect ancient greece and Shakespeare. They find that it may have some connection to an ancient tripod artifact that was stolen from a museum. I highly recommend this book for fans of mystery.

[Mererid]

I love the title and the cover – very attractive – but I found the book hard to get into. This was partly, I think, because of the author's bold choice in having multiple points of view, teens and adults, both "light" and "dark" characters, in successive chapters. I also found the whole business of the school project and the code rather unbelievable. I have to wonder what the original purpose of the tripod was, but perhaps most likely an aid to self-knowledge or meditation – and the E-Pyths' strangely ill-thought-out plan for using the ancient technology was pretty ludicrous. In fact they were a ludicrous bunch altogether, though vicious with it. I wavered between giving three and four stars, but it did pick up the pace as it went along, the characters grew on me and the Pythagorean stuff was very intriguing.

[Cath]

This is the start of high school for a group of teens. Lexi wants to make friends and is looking forward to seeing her old friend Anita, but issues with her dad’s job at a museum, bring problems home to her. Gil was at a private school until his father was imprisoned for fraud, so he spent the last year in a public school as a new boy and hopes a new school and new people will help him blend in better. His coding skills will help with the first group project of the year and he finds an unlikely friend in Lexi. Trevor is the third member of their group and somewhat of an oddity, preferring animals over people.

Gil’s older brother, Brandon, is caught up in a trap of his own making and gets persuaded to do something he soon regrets. Mix in a few secret societies with ties to some of the teens and a stolen artefact, The Ancient Tripod of Peace. Link with the school project from two of the teachers to find a coded link between ancient Greece and Shakespeare and Gil and Lexi soon find themselves in trouble.

A story of teens starting high school, secret societies and ancient hidden treasures to be discovered and the first in the Teen Thief-Catchers series. The tripod in question is a relic of great power and shouldn’t end up in the wrong hands. The group of friends try to find out what has actually happened and solve the mystery of what the tripod can do. The society involved are at odds with others and has a very strange idea of animals place with humans vs being in captivity. Things could go very wrong!

An interesting teen mystery with treasure and secret codes to work for younger teens to adults alike. The story moves at a good enough pace and is easy to follow even when it talks about the ancient societies and links to modern day. I received an ARC copy of this book from Hidden Gems and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.

[Sherrie Cronin]

This is a fun read that will keep you turning pages and have you googling Shakespeare and ancient Greek history. More than anything, this books seems like Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons) for young adults. It’s full of ancient secrets hidden in plain sight and the reader is left wondering how much is true and how much has been made up to serve the plot. It’s a fun kind of confusion, and it kept me eagerly reading until the end.
What I liked best:
The book is filled with complicated characters, both teen-age and adult. It centers on teenagers who are realistically drawn, as they deal with their own issues and those created by the adults in their lives.
The author presents a lot of mystical and new age ideas, and yet structures the plot in way to leave the reader free to believe in as little or as much of them as the reader chooses. It’s a tough balancing act, but by the end it works.
The overall plot is interesting and the dangers feel real. It’s not a story which tries to trick the reader with gotcha-type surprises, but rather one that builds in complexity and then reaches a satisfying resolution.
What I liked least:
I felt the chapter titles gave away too much of what was about to happen.
The decoded message and other parts of the mystery occasionally become too complex to follow.
There were enough characters, referred to by first and last names, that I had to start a list so I could remember who was who.
A few issues were resolved too easily or things came together a little too well, even for a novel in this genre.
In spite of these minor issues, I enjoyed this book. As a YA novel, I give it a solid 4.0/5. and would recommend it to those of all ages who like tales of hidden codes, ancient relics and resurfaced mysteries from the past.

[Brittany]

4 stars rounded up to 4.5.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I found the characters intriguing and the story to be fast paced. In the beginning I found myself keeping a list of the characters introduced in the book. I felt like a lot of characters were introduced right away and I wanted to make sure I understood their relation to each other. I also made the list so I could see how the characters tied together. I loved that each character was significant to the story and they each had an important role that often related to the other characters in some manner.

There were times when I found the code to be too complex to understand right away and at first I was getting confused about the different groups (akousmatikoi and mathematikoi) and leaders (Pythagoras, Aethalides, Melegros) being introduced. However, as I continued to read I began to understand it better. I appreciated that more than one character explains the different groups and leaders without it being redundant.

If this truly is going to be a series I will continue to read it because I am curious where the story will go next.

*** I received a free copy of this book from hidden gems in exchange for an honest review.***

[J.B. Richards]

When relics are stolen from a museum, a group of teens inadvertently come together for a high school assignment and find a cipher hidden in the writings of Shakespeare, revealing an ancient secret that could pose a significant danger to the here and now.

Teen sleuths will enjoy this mystery-thriller filled with astonishing secrets, endearing characters, copious clues, history, philosophy, archaeology, secret societies, conspiracy theories, and brilliant ciphers. Cap’s plotline moves ahead at a good pace, allowing the reader time to familiarize themselves with the characters’ backgrounds, their individual connections to the missing artifacts, and each teammates’ specific talents as they hurry to solve an ancient mystery that will lead them to a shocking reveal concerning their family histories and change their lives forever.

If you’re a teen looking for a great mystery adventure to fill in your vacation time, or are searching for a hot case to solve by the end of a rainy weekend, this fun-to-explore puzzler will have you scratching your head more than a few times.

[Lorraine]

An interesting book that joins a trio of teens who are given the task of finding a link between the world of ancient Greece and a Shakespearean play for a group project at school. Between Gil's computer skills, Trevor's knowledge of Greek history, and Lexi's grandparents, the teens find more than they bargained for.

With their lives on the line, as well as those of friends and family, the group race to untangle the mystery behind the secret societies, the codes, and the ancient artefacts.

With the different divisions within the secret society it was sometimes difficult to keep track of who was working with who.

The teens were realistically portrayed, with flaws and quirks, and the other characters involved in the story were, for the most part, fairly well fleshed out.

[Deb]

I really enjoyed this book. Although I had no idea what a tripod was and kept thinking of a camera stand. So I looked it up and some history of the society. I thought it was clever integrating the reincarnation into the story. I would definitely read more from this author of similar content.

I received a copy and am freely doing a review.

[Kimberly Love]

Growing up, I always thought that I would be an archeologist and go and dig up bones so reading a book that involved ancient artifacts was a fun read for me. For anyone who also loves mystery and suspense, they are sure to love the book as well. It’s considered to be a Young Adult novel, but I think that adults would like it as well.

[Linda]

Once I was able to get all the characters straight, it was a great quick read. I enjoyed the book and would definitely read another by this author.

[Alex (Bri's Book Nook)]

There were several problems with this book, but I am going to start off with the characters. The characters in this novel were generally uninteresting. I did not feel much of a connection to any of them, even when their stories were supposed to be interesting. It is imperative that a mystery novel have relatable and creative characters because some of the clues can lie in the characters themselves. However, this is not the case for this book, because 2 weeks after reading the novel, I would not even be able to recall the names of the main characters without some help from the notes on my phone. 

The book starts off with a boy who is a steroid dealer trying to pay back his supplier, and having to steal to do so. By stealing from a museum, he indirectly harms a nice teenage girl, and so he decides to go back and try to fix things. This would not be received from the synopsis that I got from Goodreads, which only focuses on Lexi. I did not even feel that Lexi was the main character of the novel, and didn't even remember her joining the plot until the story was well underway. 

The world-building was also a bit lack-luster. I could not visualize any of the scenes. The book was about an ancient "Tripod", but I still do not understand what the object is supposed to look like. I finished the novel, but I am still thinking of a camera stand every time the book discusses the object. It is simply not described enough for something that has been created for this universe. The secret society even seems split in their own morals, so I could not even really tell where that was going. 

The only thing that I can say is that the pacing of this book was alright! It wasn't too slow, and I was able to finish it in between schoolwork, and it still kept my attention fairly well. The story was pretty unique and had its own quirks, but it felt more like a fantasy story with poor world-building than a mystery novel to me. I can't recommend it to mystery lovers, but some people might still enjoy the novel. I would recommend it to people who like books about Pythagoreanism. 

I received an advance copy of this novel and this is is my voluntary review. 

[Suzanne Thackston]

i'm so bummed about this book. my enjoyment of it is a one star. i'm bumping it up to three (weirdly, i know) because the premise and plot are so freaking brilliant that even in a poor execution they deserve a huge shout out.
i mean, three warring sects of Pythagoreans. that's enough of a hook right there. add in a delicious mystery code encapsulated in Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream, a couple of ancient tripods with strange powers and some truly wonderful scenes of past life recall, and you've got a book custom designed to make me squee.
but i still didn't enjoy it and couldn't wait to be done with it. because i'm a character-driven reader, and the characters in this just didn't work.
for starters, the sheer number of MCs is overwhelming. after spending half the book trying to keep them straight and figure out which ones were the main ones, i gave up and let them blur. George RR Martin is an authorial anomaly in being able to provide so many different POVs and keep them clear and interesting. it flat doesn't work here.
and the head-hopping is maddening.
i wish the story had been told from the perspective of one or two of the MCs and the rest moved back onto the sidelines. or that it just got relegated to our old friend the Omniscient Narrator. we don't need to be in all those heads even if they were clear and compelling. we could get all we need from their actions alone.
which brings me to next, and probably even bigger problem with it- telling instead of showing, over and over. and equally often, doing both. i felt very un-trusted as a reader when a character bites her lip and shifts away, then i'm told 'X felt very uncomfortable' (example only.)
i want this potentially brilliant book to be re-written, heavily edited and re-released.

[Janelle]

If the Illuminati were vegan, this would be their story...

This book had all the trappings of ancient secret societies continuing into modern days, from the days of Greek philosophers to secret codes hidden in Shakespeare's plays. If it were written better, I might lump it in with a Dan Brown novel.

The overall story was good. It was engaging, and held my interest readily. The specifics were awkward, though. The writing was stilted and unrealistic (ex: a 15yo boy asking, "May I sit beside you?" instead of "hey, can I sit here?"). Every character had the same voice, and all of their inner monologues were equally stiff. There were frequently too many superfluous details given...specifics of geography all at once, for example, rather than as it came up in the storyline.

I liked how the author introduced readers to the characters in each of their own chapters, gradually bringing them all together.

I'd rate the story idea 4 stars, but the writing and execution only around 2. We compromise at 3.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Jennifer Johnson]

I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.
I was excited when I read the summary. I started this book over a month ago and kept having to stop and come back to it as I would get bored. I did finish it, but it honestly wasn't as exciting as I had hoped. I kept getting confused with the 2 names of groups involved. Also there were some punctuation errors and grammar issues that would momentarily stop me. I am curious though about what the next book could be about.