A sterling, well-written story that sets the series off to a flying start. The characters are well-drawn, the locations ably described and the genuine sense of fear and spookiness, around Terror Castle, is well evoked. The story does feel a bit slight, but that’s only to be expected as the book needs space to set everything up. Well worth a read and the only thing that dates this (it’s 46 years old!) is the fact that a silent film-star plays a major part in it. A cracking book.
For whatever reason, I never could get into the Hardy Boy Books or Nancy Drew. I remember seeing a copy of Terror Castle and as a kid I couldn't put it down and kept up with the series from then on. This is one of my favorite favorites.
ReplyDeleteA very good book! I wish the review was a bit more detailed, but I understand how hard these things are to write. I started a review of the New Bobbsey Twins paperback series, and other juvenile mystery series, and kind of lost interest in doing it
ReplyDeleteThanks Sean. Last year, for the 50th anniversary, I re-reviewed my top 10 (plus a few more) and did them in more detail but Terror Castle wasn't one of them. You can find the more detailed reviews at this link - http://markwestwriter.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/my-three-investigators-all-time-top-10.html
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