Fairly Predictable, But Well Executed and Engaging

Something odd is going on in the fishing village of Aurora, and our two main characters need to get to the bottom of it all. Zia is impetuous and a bit reckless, and Miro is more cautious, so you get a low key touch of tension between our two heroes. The overall feel is Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew, but with some welcome H.P. Lovecraft wrinkles that add interest, darkness, and supernatural creepiness to the tale.

The kids lurk and sneak and hide and escape, and do research and interrogate locals, and the action and the investigating are nicely balanced and well paced in service of a plot that zips along once the setup is in place. We get monologuing in places, and a very handy journal that gives us some backstory, but that was interesting enough to not bog down the tale.

The art initially struck me as unexceptional, but it grew on me as the story progressed. You can always tell who's who and what's going on, and so while there wasn't anything splashy going on that was fine, since the tale is basically plot driven with twists and reveals that move to an action climax. The old-timey style of the drawing that backed up the old journal entries also added variety and a different style, which kept the art interesting.

So, this was fun and cleverly told. While it didn't break new ground it was a solid tale well told.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)