Book Review: The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan

As you can tell by my tropical photo above, I was visiting warmer climes as of late. When I find myself in a dreaded airport, I always make sure to check out the books on sale because I’m curious to see what’s popular, and what constitutes a ‘beach read’ for most. I was delighted to see that the book I had carefully tucked into my luggage when I was packing, The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan, was also on airport shelves – I must have chosen wisely! As expected, I raced through this book in less than 48 hours, myself and the other thousands of people who have read it by now. It was the perfect book to read by the ocean for those of you who are lucky to need reading in that category.

Plot Summary

Pirates, buried treasure, generations of secrets, heirs to family fortunes: this book has all the makings of a good mystery, with a good dose of adventure thrown in. It takes place on the shores of Eastern Canada in a fictional small town called Maple Bay, where everyone knows everyone else’s business, and it’s all lorded over by a giant mansion known as Bellwoods. Two strangers have arrived in Maple Bay: Peter Barnett, who has recently discovered he is related to the infamous Bellwood family and is (potentially) about to inherit a the family’s wealth, and Cass Jones, a failed author looking to reinvigorate her career and love life. As they acclimatize to the cute little town and learn more about its infamous history, bodies begin piling up. There is a secret historical society made up of old-timers who still believe there is a buried treasure somewhere around Maple Bay, but the members keep dying off in questionable circumstances, and local teen Dandy Feltzen has decided to investigate. Her beloved grandfather was one of those members of the society, so she’s desperate to find out what the society had discovered when they were still meeting, and how this has led to their deaths. But when it comes to a potential windfall of gold coins and jewels, who can you really trust? Everyone seems to be acting suspiciously, and with the family history that permeates Maple Bay, it seems that bad behaviour may run in the family for more than a few citizens.

My Thoughts

There are many contradictory, almost surprising elements of this book that make it hard to fit into one genre. What I can say with complete confidence however, is that it is most obviously a plot-driven novel. The myth of this buried treasure is what shapes the plot, and pushes its characters forward. There are murders, yet the book doesn’t feel all that dark (aside from the frequent cursing, which I found a bit jarring). Although it’s not a cozy mystery either – lots of people die that don’t deserve that fate, and the twist that comes about 3/4s of the way through is shocking and sad. There’s a romantic storyline, but of course we are suspicious of this burgeoning relationship, and many other people’s motivations. I read this book so quickly that I likely didn’t spend enough time reading it as closely as I could have, I just wanted to find out what happened to the treasure, just like all the characters.

In sacrifice of the very fast-paced but still detailed plot, is the characterization. There are the three main characters: Peter, Dandy and Cass, but we also meet many other people, young, old, past and present. Because what happened in the past is so critical, we get family histories of some of these long-dead characters too, so as readers we are digesting alot of information. You can imagine with all this going on, we aren’t able to spend much time with the present day characters, so occasionally their actions or motivations may seem a bit off, or simply unexplained. However, I’m happy to ignore this in the face of a bigger and more important picture; a plot I’m invested in – and I was! Dotted throughout the book were sections of a long-lost diary found in the Bellwoods mansion, written by one of the Bellwood patriarchs, Henry Bellwood. I found this to be a refreshing take on the ‘that day’ reveal that so many thrillers rely on, because the diary only revealed part of the mystery. The diary was in itself, just another large and descriptive clue.

I’m not sure how my feelings on this book would have changed had I not raced through it while relaxing on a beach chair. I suppose I’ll never really know the answer to that question, but if you are headed out on a beach holiday in the next little while, definitely consider reading this one.