Ken Holt #17 Plumed Serpent and #18 Sultan's Scimitar

In Ken Holt #17, The Mystery of the Plumed Serpent, Ken and Sandy travel to Mexico with their new acquaintance, Ricardo, who owns a medallion that contains a map of an old hacienda.  The map is supposed to show the location of a treasure, and the boys decide to try to find it.  Unscrupulous people have the same plan, and they try to take the map away from the boys.

Rick Brant has sent Ken three Megabucks units which are small units with which the boys can speak to each other over a small distance.  This was an agreed-upon bit of cross promotion between the authors of the Ken Holt and Rick Brant series.

I greatly enjoyed this book.

In Ken Holt #18, The Mystery of the Sultan's Scimitar, Ken and Sandy travel in Europe.  While the boys visit a museum in Athens, the Golden Key is stolen.  The cylinder is an important Greek artifact, and the Greek are devastated by its disappearance.  It is believed that the thief will try to smuggle the cylinder out of the country.  Ken and Sandy find themselves unwitting participants in the conspiracy.

On page one, I saw that the book opens in Greece.  Oh, no!  I have an aversion to books set in Greece because I can't stand The Greek Symbol Mystery.  I hate that book!

Fortunately, this book is better than The Greek Symbol Mystery.

The book opens with the boys touring Greece.  Next, the Golden Key is stolen from a museum via a ruse.  Hmm... this part reminds me of the Three Investigators book, The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure.

I enjoyed most of this book, although some parts of it weren't that interesting to me.

Ken Holt #15 Gallows Cliff and #16 Silver Scorpion

In Ken Holt #15, The Mystery of Gallows Cliff, Ken and Sandy are driving to San Francisco.  They stop in Gallows Cliff, Arizona, to check on an archaeological dig.  Quite unexpectedly, the boys cross paths with Mort Phillips and Ramon Gonzales.  Mort and Ramon are trying to find some smugglers, so Ken and Sandy decide to join the investigation.  They decide that the archaeological dig may be the center of operations for whomever is responsible for the smuggling.

This is the second story to feature Mort and Ramon, and I enjoyed seeing them again.  Having Ken and Sandy interact with other recurring characters adds an extra dimension to the story.

I really enjoyed this one.

In Ken Holt #16, The Clue of the Silver Scorpion, Ken and Sandy begin to have random mishaps.  Someone damages their car.  While the car is being repaired, someone breaks into the garage.  Two men try to hold up the boys on a country road.  The boys are undecided whether the events are connected until the men abduct them, wanting them to give something back.

I like this passage from page 21.

"Let's give it up," Sandy suggested. "Neither of us has the slightest idea of what he was trying to do, or why. And we never will."

"I guess not. We'll just have to file it away among 'Unusual Incidents,' " Ken said.

Sandy sighed. "Sometimes I think that practically everything that happens to us is unusual."

There is no doubt about that.

It's interesting how very little I remembered about some of these books upon this reading.  I had no memory of the plot of this book during most of my reading of this book.  In fact, at one point I questioned whether I had read the book before.  I knew I must have, since I was certain that I had the complete set when I read the books before.  It was not until I reached the scene where the boys were hiding in the house and Ken called the police quietly on the phone that I remembered that scene. It's like the last few chapters were the only part of the story that made an impression on me before.

This book flows quite well, and I greatly enjoyed it.

Ken Holt #13 Shattered Glass and #14 Invisible Enemy

In Ken Holt #13, The Mystery of the Shattered Glass, Ken and Sandy are on their way to Europe via a cargo freighter.  Only three other passengers are present on the journey, a husband and wife and a man named Gerard.  Ken and Sandy receive a telegram telling them that charges are to be filed against Gerard, and shortly after that, Gerard is lost overboard.  Ken and Sandy decide that Gerard staged his apparent suicide and that he remains on the ship.

This book is a bit unusual in that the entire story occurs on a ship.

I enjoyed this book.  The only part I skimmed was the final scene in the hold, since that type of scene gets dragged out longer than I prefer.

In Ken Holt #14, The Mystery of the Invisible Enemy, Ken and Sandy attend a Halloween party at the Brentwood Foundry and Casting Company.  After the company's president, Lew Collins, meets them, he asks them for help.  Someone has threatened to publicize photos of a top-secret machine that the company has under development unless Collins pays the extortioner $100,000.  Collins cannot afford the sum and asks Ken and Sandy to recover the photos so that he doesn't lose the company.

Page 24 has a passage where Ken, Sandy, and Lew Collins discuss how feasible it would be to have someone investigate at the foundry.  Collins says that the extortioner would be suspicious if "any stranger turned up at the plant, prowling around and asking questions."  Sandy asks if the extortioner would be suspicious of a "new employee with a legitimate job to do," and Collins says that he would.  This is a nice bit of realism that is seldom present in Nancy Drew books. Nancy, Bess, and George always go undercover at places like, oh, very small banks, and nobody ever thinks anyone will notice.

I greatly enjoyed this book.

Ken Holt #11 Grinning Tiger and #12 Vanishing Magician

In Ken Holt #11, The Mystery of the Grinning Tiger, Timothy Crandall, the world's youngest millionaire, is whisked away in a limousine after he arrives in the United States.  Ken and Sandy think something strange is going on.  When they reach the Crandall estate, they are forbidden from speaking to Timothy, even though Timothy knows them.  The boys notice some strange events near the estate and fear that Timothy has been kidnapped.

It is strange how in one book after another, the Allens are slow to accept Ken's theories about possible crimes and even subject him to ridicule.  Over and over, Ken is proved to be correct.

I enjoyed this book.  As usual, I skimmed some of the falling action as well as some of the scene where the villains get captured.  I'm always eager to move on to the next book.

In Ken Holt #12, The Mystery of the Vanishing Magician, Magnus the Magician performs in Brentwood High School.  Bert is certain that he recognizes Magnus as Chris Bell, a man who saved his life several years ago.  Magnus denies it and then vanishes before the performance is over.  Magnus later ends up in the hospital, where it is confirmed that he is Chris Bell.  Ken and the Allens learn that Chris Bell is wanted for the robbery of a jewelry store, and Bert knows he is innocent.  Ken and Sandy set out to prove it. 

This book really interested me.  I only skimmed just a little bit here and there.  I even enjoyed the lengthy discussions and deductions, which I had found tiring in earlier books.  For whatever reason, I greatly enjoyed the deductions.  The ending of the book is quite thrilling, and the falling action does not drag. I greatly enjoyed this book.

Ken Holt #9 Galloping Horse and #10 Green Flame

In Ken Holt #9, The Mystery of the Galloping Horse, Richard Holt is in grave danger.  In just four days, Holt will testify before a grand jury.  In the meantime, Holt is concerned about his safety as well as Ken and Sandy's.  Holt fears that his enemies will target Ken as the easiest way of preventing him from testifying.  Ken and Sandy join an archaeological dig as a means of staying in hiding.  At the dig, the boys find a mystery.  The sounds of a galloping horse are heard at night, and residents think it is a ghost.  The boys investigate.

The boys have to fight a grass fire that threatens their camp.  They are losing the battle when coincidentally it begins to rain.  I swear that every single time a fire gets out of control in a series book that it promptly begins raining.

The plot of this book is quite contrived.  Ken and Sandy go into hiding from the men who are threatening Mr. Holt.  They find a mystery where someone is messing with their camp.  Here we have two completely events, right?  No!  The same group of men is responsible for the threats and for the problems at the excavation.  How ironic that Ken and Sandy escape from the criminals to the very place where the criminals go.

I greatly enjoyed the first half of the book.  I then felt that the book had begun to drag with it taking forever to get to the point.  I regained interest shortly before the boys were captured, then I lost interest again. 

I am still trying to articulate exactly why I enjoy parts of these books greatly but then have trouble with other parts of the books.  The Ken Holt books do spend large amounts of text with the boys trying to figure something out, making a decision, doing more figuring, and going back and forth like that.  I think that's part of what gets to me.  Also, the plots often seem to plod along slowly in their great detail.

These books are very detailed and feel much more lengthy than other series books.  I compared the text of this book to a Nancy Drew book, and the lines of text are closer together, so each page has more text than other series books.

As with the other Ken Holt books, this is a good book, but much of it doesn't appeal to me.

In Ken Holt #10, The Mystery of the Green Flame, Ken and Sandy travel to Mexico.  Soon after their arrival in Mexico, a man approaches them and uses a lighter with a green flame.  The man then realizes that Ken and Sandy are not the people he is seeking.  This event plunges the boys into their latest mystery as they help to locate the headquarters of a group of criminals.

Finally, I get to one of the books that is set in Mexico.  I like series books set in Mexico, and this book is no exception.

On page 3, Ken suggests that Sandy doesn't know what enchiladas, tacos, and tortillas are.  I always find it interesting how these old series books treat Mexican food as something with which Americans are not that familiar.  That's hardly the case now, since we all know what tacos are. 

Sandy creates a radio transmitter towards the end of this book, and the description of the process strongly reminded me of the science in the Rick Brant books.  In fact, I felt like Ken and Sandy had morphed into Rick and Scotty during that scene.

I greatly enjoyed this book.

Ken Holt #7 Iron Box and #8 Phantom Car

In Ken Holt #7, The Mystery of the Iron Box, Richard Holt has purchased Mom Allen an iron box for Christmas.  Someone broke into Mr. Holt's apartment and later into the Allen home.  Ken is certain that someone wants the iron box, and as a result, he is the subject of much ridicule from the Allen family.  Ken doggedly pursues a series of clues, determined to discover who wants the iron box, and why.

On page 77, a statement is made about it being odd to wear dark glasses in the winter.  I have never thought it odd, since the sun is still bright in the winter.  Some people might consider it strange to wear dark glasses on a cloudy day, but I wouldn't think anything of it, since some people's eyes are very sensitive to light.

Ken and Sandy spend 46 pages trying to get free from being captured.  It then takes them an additional 20 pages to be rescued.  I ended up skimming a lot of it, since I have read the book before.  I found that I did not care this time.  The scenes in Ken Holt books where Ken and Sandy are captives and their escapes are described in painstaking detail are my least favorite parts of the books.

While I overall enjoyed this book, the last half of the book was not that interesting to me.

In Ken Holt #8, The Clue of the Phantom Car, Ralph Conner runs off the road on a rural hill, and as a result, he and his brother, Mort, are forced to sell their company since their insurance company has dropped them.  Ralph and Mort have had too many accidents in the last six months, which is unusual for them.  Ken suspects that someone has sabotaged the Conners in order to force them to sell their business.  Unfortunately, Ken is unable to find any evidence, but he and Sandy refuse to let the matter die.

I greatly enjoyed this story.  It's interesting how some books don't appeal to me while others do.  The book takes place entirely in and near Brentwood, and that is part of the appeal.  I found this book to be thoroughly engaging from start to finish. 

Ken Holt #5 Coiled Cobra and #6 Hangman's Inn

In Ken Holt #5, The Clue of the Coiled Cobra, Ken and Sandy give a ride to a man who appears to be down on his luck.  Later, the boys learn that the man is a convicted bank robber and that an insurance company is searching for the missing money.

On page 57, the boys plan to search for a thirteen-year-old Hudson automobile.  Ken remarks, "After all, how many cars like that do you think there could be in one town?"  Sandy replies, "With our luck, we'll probably discover that Brentwood is currently playing host to an international convention of thirteen-year-old-Hudson owners."  This is a shrewd observation about how series books usually play out.  This book also has a character named Fenton, which could be a nod to Fenton Hardy of the Hardy Boys books.

I recall that this book was not a great favorite over four years ago, and I enjoyed it less this time.  Once again, it's hard for me to pinpoint exactly what it is that I don't like.  I think it has to do with the great detail in the story and the large amount of time spent making deductions.  It's great detective work, but it doesn't do much for me.  I don't care for this story.

In Ken Holt #6, The Secret of Hangman's Inn, Ken and Sandy search for Joe, who does cleaning work at the newspaper.  Joe didn't clean the office the night before, so Ken and the Allens think Joe is in trouble.  They tell the police chief, who doesn't take them seriously.  Since he refuses to investigate, the boys must uncover the clues on their own.

On page 77, Sandy comments that the boys are "so conspicuous in that red car."  I'm glad Sandy finally has realized this.  How can the villains not notice the boys following them?

I enjoyed this book better than The Clue of the Coiled Cobra, but some parts of it dragged for me, particularly towards the later part of the story.

Ken Holt #3 Black Thumb Mystery and #4 Marked Claw

In Ken Holt #3, The Black Thumb Mystery, Frank Brown has just been convicted of assisting in a bank robbery.  Mr. Brown is a good friend of the Allen family, and unfortunately, a key piece of evidence was supplied by Ken and Sandy when they testified about something one of the crooks told Mr. Brown.  Sandy feels horrible, so Ken and Sandy try to find a way to clear Mr. Brown.

As when I read this book four years ago, I had some trouble getting into it.  We aren't given a reason to care about Mr. Brown and his plight.  Sure, we know that he is a friend of the Allens, but Ken reflects to himself about how he doesn't feel as bad as they do, since he hasn't lived in Brentwood for long.  That's how I felt since I didn't know anything about Mr. Brown.  The bank robbery occurred before the opening of the book, and the guilty verdict came in at the beginning of the book.  I always have more trouble with books when important parts of the plot occur before the beginning of the book.

Once I got several chapters into the book, I was fine.  The mystery plays out in a similar fashion to The Riddle of the Stone Elephant and is enjoyable.

When I read these books, I always wonder about how Ken and Sandy can drive a red convertible and successfully trail other vehicles without being noticed.  At one point in this book, Ken and Sandy stay back 100 feet from the other vehicle so that they won't be noticed.  The road is rural.

The psychological game that Ken and Sandy play with Horn towards the end of the book is fascinating.

Once I got into the story, the book was great all the way through until the end.  The end did not drag, and all of it was engaging.

In Ken Holt #4, The Clue of the Marked Claw, Ken and Sandy visit Ted Bateson, one of Ken's friends from his old school.  Soon after their arrival, the boys learn that someone is robbing  the Batesons' lobster traps.  The Batesons are quite certain that they know who the culprit is, but without proof, they can do nothing.  Ken and Sandy decide to spend their vacation time working on the case.

I found that I enjoyed most of this book more than I did the first time I read it.  I began to remember some details soon into the book and was certain that I remembered the identity of one of the culprits.  That piqued my interest.  Unfortunately, I did grow tired of the story towards the end and skimmed parts of the last three to four chapters.

Ken Holt #1 Skeleton Island and #2 Stone Elephant

I decided to read the Ken Holt books again.  I never wrote reviews of the books before because I didn't have a lot to say.  I also didn't like the books nearly as much as others do, which made me feel bad.  I had planned to put up a website section for the series and did just barely start on one around 4 1/2 years ago.  I think I enjoyed the books, but I think I felt disappointed or was not overly enthusiastic.  Or maybe it was the beginning of my motivational issues causing me to lose interest in building sections for the website.  Whatever happened, I only barely started a Ken Holt section and have had no desire to complete it.  The unfinished Ken Holt section is where I broke off on creating sections for my website, and I never added anything to the site until I added the Three Investigators section last summer. 

I am curious to see how I respond to the Ken Holt books as compared to Rick Brant.  As I read Rick Brant, I thought that I liked Rick Brant more than Ken Holt.  I expect that opinion to hold true.  Let's see what happens as I begin this journey.

In Ken Holt #1, The Secret of Skeleton Island, Ken leaves school to catch a train so that he can meet his father, Richard Holt, who is a famous reporter.  Two men use a ruse to get Ken to travel with them in their car, and Ken is taken hostage!  When Ken escapes, he seeks refuge in the office of the Brentwood Advance.  This twist of fate brings Ken the friendship of Sandy Allen and his family.

In this book, Ken and Sandy trail the crooks, but during that time, they get captured.  Several other times they nearly get captured or have skirmishes with the crooks, and for 100 pages of the book, Ken and Sandy play this constant game of cat-and-mouse with the villains.  It's very suspenseful and well written, but it's too much for me.  More specifically, it's the very great detail that is given during every single scene that gets to me.  That's my problem with this book, and I can't describe it much better than that.  Since I had read this book before, I skimmed some parts of the text on this reading.

I found that once the boys finally get inside the hotel that I became more interested again.  The long stretch of 100 pages when the boys trail the crooks from  New York City to Skeleton Island is the part that was trying for me.

In Ken Holt #2, The Riddle of the Stone Elephant, Ken and Sandy travel to Colorado to do preliminary work on a story that Richard Holt will cover.  The boys research an old land dispute, and they quickly realize that someone doesn't want them to complete their research.  Exactly what information is someone trying to keep hidden?

This book is much more to my liking.  The investigation flows quite well and is very interesting.

I did find the story just a tad bit convoluted.  I got confused a few times about all of the characters and had to pause to think about who was who.

Just like when I read this book over four years ago, I had trouble visualizing the placement of the rocks that form the needle and the elephant.  The cover art didn't help me, either.  The problem is that the cover art doesn't show all the details.

Speaking of the cover art, the man along the right edge is wearing a hat, but the color of the hat is almost identical to the rock, so he doesn't appear to be wearing a hat.

While this book flows quite well and is quite enjoyable, I grew tired of it towards the end.  The last few chapters drag out a bit, and I grew impatient for the book to end.

Ken Holt Series Introduction and Overview

Usually I publish this type of post after I publish my reviews, but this time I'm publishing it first. 

When I read the Ken Holt series 4 1/2 years ago, I was a bit disappointed.  I recall that I enjoyed many of the books but that I felt a sense of letdown.  As best I can recall, I was disappointed because I had always heard such wonderful things about the Ken Holt series, which caused the books to be destined to fall short of my high expectations.  I have never been much of a boys' series fan, so that was also a large part of why I was destined to be disappointed.  I can't appreciate a boys' series like Ken Holt in the way that boys' series enthusiasts can.

Since I read the Rick Brant series last month and actually enjoyed them a lot, I wanted to read the Ken Holt books again just to see if my perspective had changed any.  This time I couldn't be disappointed no matter what, since I had already experienced that disappointment. 

I found that this time that I still struggled with the great detail, particularly the detail with which the boys knock ideas back and forth about what to do and the detail with which their attempts to escape are described.  I found that I had to skim the text at times in order to avoid becoming bored. 

I don't like several of the earlier titles in the series as much as later titles.  This is what derailed me over 4 1/2 years ago when I started to create a website section for Ken Holt.  In early July 2010, I had actually scanned the cover art for volumes 1 and 2 and had written summaries for those two books.  I created the main page of the section with the list of titles and some general information.  I had every plan to continue.  What I believe happened is that I didn't particularly care for volumes 3, 4, and 5, and by the time I finished volume 5, I wasn't interested in finishing the section.  I don't recall what I thought of the rest of the series.  All I can remember is that I was overall disappointed.  Below, see the dates on the files from my website that I captured from the file manager last month.  It shows how little I did and how abruptly I abandoned it.

I did finish reading the series in 2010.  I didn't admit until during the last year that I wasn't overwhelmingly thrilled with the Ken Holt series.  I felt so bad that I hadn't loved the series that I didn't feel comfortable admitting it to anyone.  I didn't want to upset anyone, since it seemed, according to online reviews, that every single person who has ever read the series thinks that the Ken Holt series is the best of the best.  I don't mean that in a sarcastic fashion; when I read the reviews it seemed that everyone who has reviewed the series online loves the books and thinks the series is the very best.  I didn't know what was wrong with me, so I didn't want to admit to how I felt. 

Now let's fast forward to the last month.  I wanted to read Ken Holt again to see what I thought after reading Rick Brant.  I also wanted to finish that website section for two reasons.  First, it was an unfinished project.  Second, I recently created a Rick Brant section, so I needed to create a Ken Holt section.  It wouldn't be fitting to ignore Ken Holt.

I began reading the books again.  I struggled with the first book, which I don't think was the case 4 1/2 years ago.  A few parts of it really dragged for me this time.  I liked the second and third books significantly better than I did before.  So far, so good.  I told myself that I would finish that website section.  I also enjoyed #4 better than before, although part of it bored me.  I did not care for #5.  I overall liked #6, but parts of it dragged for me.  #7 also dragged for me.  This wasn't going well.

By this point, I wasn't sure if I could force myself to finish the website section, since the same feelings were coming over me as before.  I had started writing reviews for this blog, but by #6, I began to lose interest.  Did I really want to write reviews where I would say that parts of several books from the very best boys' series actually bored me?  I started feeling bad again.

Fortunately, I really liked all of #8, most of #9, and all of #10.  Thank goodness!  This rejuvenated me, and I began working on the website section.  It was during the reading of #10 that I wrote most of my summaries and scanned all of the books. I ended up greatly enjoying the rest of the series.

I like the second half of the series a lot, while my opinion of the first half of the series is generally lukewarm.  The second half of the series has more of the feel of the average series book.  The earlier books have a higher page count and the text size is smaller than for other Grosset and Dunlap books.  The earlier books are extremely detailed with large amounts of text devoted to sleuthing around or making deductions.

One reason I like the second half of the series better is because of some recurring characters that are not present in the first half of the series.  Two of these characters are Mort Phillips and Ramon Gonzales.  Three books are set near or in Mexico, and Phillips appears in two of those books.  Gonzales appears in all three.

Female characters are almost completely absent from this series.  Another reason I like the second half of the series better is because several of the books feature Maribelle, who writes the society section of the newspaper.  I like Maribelle.

Most all girls' series books feature a few boy characters, even if they don't add much to the story.  Boys' books often feature a few girl characters, who, needless to say, never do much.  This series does not have girl characters.  Ken and Sandy do not know any teenage girls and never encounter any girls in their travels.  The complete absence of girls makes this a strongly masculine series. 

This month I finally discovered a few scattered online comments where one or two female readers have not liked the Ken Holt books.  Unlike those readers, I do like most of the books, but as stated, I had problems with enjoying the early books in the series.  Ken Holt is a series that strongly appeals to male readers, and apparently, most all male readers love the series.  Female readers are more likely to have lukewarm feelings towards the books and might not like them as much.

This post was written as I read the last five books in the series.  I am glad that I have worked out exactly why I feel the way I do about this series.  I enjoyed the series more this time than 4 1/2 years ago, and I can thank Rick Brant for that.  Reading Rick Brant helped get me into a more receptive mindset where I could enjoy Ken Holt better.  I think before that I overall disliked the early books and had only lukewarm feelings towards the later books.  This time I liked the early books better than before, except for the parts that dragged, and I greatly enjoyed the later books.

I believe if I ever decide read the first books a third time that I would like them even more.  It's like Ken Holt is an acquired taste for me.  I have had to adjust to them, because they a bit different than other series books.

Next up are my reviews, most of which were written before I wrote this post.  The first review will start out a little strange coming right after this post that was written a few weeks later, but I want to leave it as originally written.