Mystery of the Martello Tower

This is the book we're reading for the library's Parent/Child book club. I meant for it to be a quick read but seemed to drag it over a much longer period of time than I planned to. I'd give it an 'okay'. I can't tell Jill that I thought it was just okay though because I'm still trying to coax her through it. She seems to be having as hard a time as I did (although I just kept telling her, "it gets really good!") I got kind of lost in the details of it all but kept going because I wanted to find out the story between all the little twists that the author wouldn't budge on all through the story. Apparently the author is a big basketball fan - which would explain the tidbits of basketball info and talk dropped in here and there. I actually thought I'd read it quickly, then read it again just before we meet for Book Club, just to refresh my memory. However, I think one read is enough for this one.

Here's a summary someone else wrote:

When Hazel and Ned’s father disappears without saying good-bye, their summer plunges into chaos. As the siblings work to untangle this and other mysteries and learn who they can trust, they find family they didn’t know they had and learn of a second, darker secret surrounding their mother’s death.

One thing I found strange about this book was the absence of adults in the kid's every day lives. I know that's a common thread in children's books - but this one seemed a little quickly thrown together and not too plausible. That detail nagged at me all the way through it. Then to not only have them alone, but somehow find their long lost relatives, travel to where they lived (by themselves) and then hang out with their equally adult abandoned cousins....strange. All very strange.

Apparently others have loved this book....but as for me, nah!