Book Review: The Eye of Midnight by Andrew Brumbach

Hi all,

I recently received an ARC of The Eye of Midnight by Andrew Brumbach as a contest winner for the incredibly useful blog Literary Rambles (http://www.literaryrambles.com/). Of course, I'm always willing to read more books so here's my opinion on this one.

Recently, I read somewhere that the young main character going off to a grandparent's / other elderly relative's home for summer vacation is a tired trope. That premise inspires no disdain or otherwise negative feelings for me; so I'm fine with the premise of this book.

Which is: young cousins William and Maxine are sent to their grandfather's manor for the summer. Maxine arrives at the manor first, and upon exploration finds no one present. She holes up in the library for awhile until William arrives. The cousins get the chance to explore more thoroughly before Colonel Battersea (their grandpa) finally shows up. After receiving a weird telegram though, he rounds the children up and starts traveling for NYC. He tells the kids that he'll put them to bed in a hotel and then head off to collect a package from a courier.

When the group gets off the train though, Colonel Battersea disappears. The kids try to get help from law enforcement but eventually decide their best bet is to meet the courier. This decision starts a grand adventure to rescue the courier's package from gangsters, their grandpa from secretive assassins, and themselves from all the danger in between.

In my opinion, this was a fun story. The characters are engaging, the plot appropriately paced. The language was a bit flowery, almost in a poetic way. I'm not sure if that's a product of the author's voice or the historical setting. Regardless, it was done well and not overdone so I like it. Also, I'm glad to say that this book is totally kid appropriate (good thing since it's aimed for a younger audience). And Colonel Battersea's adventurous ways are built up with some good wisdom and hopefulness that shows up near the end.

Accolades to the author; I would be intrigued enough to buy into this if he intends to make it into a series. (It seems like that's where this is headed since the kids' summer isn't over and now they're on to a new adventure.) Particularly, I want to know about Nura's (the courier) journey to bring the package to Colonel Battersea.