Title: The Red Pick-Up Truck Mystery
Author: George S. Haines
Publisher: PageTurner Press and Media LLC
ISBN: 978-1638713647
Pages: 384
Genre: Fiction / Mystery
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Hollywood Book Reviews
The Red Pick-Up Truck Mystery by George S. Haines is the kind of book you don’t see a lot of these days. It’s a novel that can be read and enjoyed by the whole family. While the protagonists are a couple of teenagers, this is not just a story for young adults. Anyone who likes mysteries will find this one both involving and satisfying. This is the third book in a series of “Sam and Howie Adventures”. One need not be familiar with the previous two to get knee deep in this one. It’s packed with suspense, surprises, and more.
Set in 1942, with America in the midst of a world war, Sam is a sixteen year-old who lives on a farm in Indiana. He is visited by his cousin, Howie, who’s just a year younger. Their previous summers together involved them in some mysterious adventures as well, but this summer is going to be a real doozy. Initially the boys plan to take things easy and restore an aging pick-up truck that Sam saved enough money to purchase, but things begin to change rapidly when the youngsters find what appears to be money (lots of it) and bizarre coded messages hidden in various part of the truck. Before you know it, another grand adventure has begun.
In addition to Sam and Howie, author Haines has filled his chronicle with a cadre of interesting characters. There’s a strong-armed heavy named Moose who weighs in at over three hundred pounds and seems always on the verge of violently rearranging the physical makeup of those he doesn’t like. There’s Squirrely, a skilled safecracker who worries about virtually everything. There’s C. A. Molar, the recently changed name of a vile dentist who has not only become a criminal kingpin but a traitor as well. There are Sly and Slick, two professional thieves who seem to be always on the way back to jail as soon as they get out. But, lest you think all the interesting folk in this yarn are villains, you’ll also find Deputy Snooper, an officer reminiscent of Barney Fife from Mayberry, and his boss, Sheriff Neverfine, who’s a good guy and a pretty smart cookie for a small town cop. Various members of Sam and Howie’s family, FBI agents, and evil German Nazis are also around to keep the plot pumping.
Haines is an imaginative storyteller who fills his narrative with all manner of tension-filled twists and turns. The central plot involves fine art theft, kidnapping, and more. Too much exposition would deprive readers of one unanticipated revelation after another, but rest assured that detail is high on the author’s agenda. Whether it’s vintage truck parts or paintings that actually hide other paintings beneath, Haines doesn’t shy away from providing the kind of specifics that add interesting bits of authenticity to this family-friendly fiction. If you like tales that engage, involve, and keep things moving, then you just might want to come along for the ride in The Red Pick-Up Truck Mystery.