Danger at Dead Man’s Pass by M.G. Leonard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
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Danger at Dead Man’s Pass is the 4th-installment of my favorite Middle Grade series, Adventures on Trains.
This series follows Hal, a talented young artist with a talent for solving mysteries. Hal’s Uncle Nat is a travel writer, who specializes in trains and he takes Hal along with him on some of his journeys. Hence the name of the series.
In the first three books, Hal and Uncle Nat had adventures in their native-UK, in the United States and South Africa. This book takes them to Germany at the request of an old friend, Baron Essenbach.
The Kratzensteins are wealthy and powerful railway tycoons with a rich history and spooky mansion in the mountains. Essenbach’s wife is a Kratzenstein.
After the mysterious death of a family member, Uncle Nat and Hal are asked to travel to the funeral to investigate the death and an ominous witch’s curse.
Assuming fake identities in order to infiltrate the family’s funeral events, Hal and Uncle Nat immerse themselves in the world of the Kratzensteins.
With danger and warring motives at every junction, will Hal and Uncle Nat be able to crack the case before their time in Germany is up?
As always, I had an absolute blast with this story. I’ve grown quite attached to Hal and his Uncle Nat over the course of this series. I want our adventures to go on forever.
This was another successful mystery. There was a large cast of quirky characters, some believed Alexander died of natural causes, and others believed it was the curse rearing its ugly head. But could there be another answer?
This one is a bit different than the previous three in that, we aren’t on a train the whole time.
Uncle Nat and Hal do travel by train to get to Germany, and then the Kratzenstein’s do have a private funeral train that is used for Alexander’s services, but besides that, you are at the Kratzenstein’s gothic-feeling home.
I did miss being on the train the whole time, I feel like that always adds a nice closed circle, or even locked room element, to the mystery. However, I’m never one to turn down time at a creepy, gothic mansion, so this setting worked as well.
I also liked the exploration of the family curse, its history and whether or not it was real. It brought a nice is it supernatural, is it not supernatural twist to it.
Hal did make some new friends in this one as well, which is often the case for him. Everyone loves Hal. They helped him a bit in his investigation. I particularly enjoyed Hilda, who had a penchant for mystery stories.
The conclusion of this one was quite exciting. A bit of a nail-biter for young Hal. I’m seriously so excited to continue on with this series.
I definitely recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a solid, heart-warming, engaging Children’s Mystery.
