🪄 rating: ✰✰✰.𝟳𝟱 𐬹 ੈ ˖

𖥔‧₊˚ ⊹ The Obelisk treasure is the best-known and documented treasure from the Golden Age of Piracy and was said to be last seen in the small town of Maple Bay. Imagine the surprise of local teenager Dandy when she receives a letter left by her grandfather, revealing that he was part of a secret historical society on a quest to find it. The town also welcomed two newcomers: 40-year-old Peter is seeking to reconnect with his roots and meet his grandmother, who was the current heir of the Bellwood fortune, and Cass, a YA author whose pen has run dry, looking for inspiration amidst the town's scenic beauty and enigmatic lore. These three individuals, initially strangers to each other, are intertwined as a decades-old mystery emerges from the shadows, drawing them together. ✶

The story was told from three perspectives, which at times felt overwhelming due to the frequent changes without clear indications of which character was speaking. Given that the setting is a small town, it was confusing at first since the characters interacted with the same townspeople.

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ It also started off slowly but picked up after around the 30% mark, and it was definitely worth the wait. I particularly loved Dandy and wished the story was solely from her perspective. I found Peter's to be okay, but I didn’t feel that Cass’s perspective was necessary. It seemed like everything that happened to her was just coincidental, so I didn’t connect with her at all.

I’ve made my best attempt to capture the essence of the book, and I have to say, the mystery was truly captivating and new, plus that plot twist— WOW, it left me gasping . The formatting also could have been better, but I understand that I received a raw, unedited copy.

Thank you to NetGalley, Grove Atlantic, and of course, Tom Ryan for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Please remember that this opinion is my own. The book will be published on October 2024 ⭑.ᐟ

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚

𐙚 pre-read: another arc! looking forward to reading from authors that i'm not familiar with and explore other genres 💭

WELCOME TO MAPLE BAY, NOVA SCOTIA

I definitely picked up this book when I saw the location! I currently live in Nova Scotia so reading a treasure hunt mystery book set locally definitely intrigued me! I also feel like a treasure hunt book is the perfect summer read full of adventure and excitement!

The plot of “the treasure hunters club” follows three characters whose life events cause their paths to cross. They find themselves on the hunt for treasure and the rest you’ll have to find out for yourself!

I enjoyed the chapters swapping POV of the characters and seeing how they started out knowing where they were going to end up.

I also loved the sprinkling of history in this book and seeing the back story and family history, background on the community and relationships that spanned over decades.

“ Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone meets The Goonies in The Treasure Hunters Club—a rollicking murder mystery set in a seaside town filled with pirate lore, family secrets, unforgiveable grudges, secret societies, and of course, a treasure lost to time.”

Thank you to Grove Atlantic, Tom Ryan and NetGalley for the EARC!

Publish date: October 15th

I had high expectations for this one. The blurb had me expecting Goonies vibes, but that is definitely not the case here. There aren't many feel-good moments in this story; it is more of a slow thriller. This book suffers from too many characters with a structured presentation including a confusing mix of third person limited and first person POVs. One of them is a writer who even acknowledges how difficult it all is to keep straight and promises to include a chart of who's who in her upcoming book. I really could have used a chart like this for real.
My favorite characters were Grandy and Dandy. I really loved any time they were on the page. I honestly never understood why everyone kept saying Dandy was weird though, and I think that is the result of a flaw in characterization. I wish there had been more of a focus on the treasure hunting and less on the mystery of the past and the whole thing about the recent murders. I realize that is the bulk of the plot, but I wanted this to be more of a fun read than it was. Introducing characters just to immediately kill them the next time you see them, and the random little bit about the supernatural felt out of place.
I wanted to enjoy this more, but I just didn't. Rounding up from 2.5⭐
Thanks still to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this advanced copy to review!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the eARC.

The Treasure Hunters Club was fun. It has all the parts of a cozy mystery: unique setting, dead matriarch, strange neighbors, a local legend. I enjoyed it, for the most part. If you like cozies and Maine, I think this would be a good fit for you.

"I thought this was really well written and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. I think it will find readers at our library, so we will definitely be purchasing for the collection.

DNF at about 20% , will come back and edit if I re-read it. Sorry was just not in the headspace for it.

This was fun and easy to read. I didn’t see the twist coming so I was happy to be taken off guard. It did take a lot for me to get my head around the characters and their relationships. Overall, a nice read

There are not enough words to explain how amazing this book is. Honestly, for the first time I am at a loss for words when writing this review.

The development of the story, the characters, the emotions, so many shocking twists and turns. This book has it ALL & more!

I honestly cannot even tell you how much I enjoyed reading this book. The character development was unreal, each chapter was a different POV, and at the end of each chapter it ended with a cliff hanger. One you can only find out what happened when you got to their next chapter. Over and over again, I could not put this book down once I really got a chance to get into it.

I am not one to post spoilers so I will say the amount of twists in this story are unreal. It will leave you with your jaw dropped, and your emotions all over the place. But the end tied together to nicely.

If you have the opportunity to read this book - DO IT! Especially if you like multiple POV, twists, fast paced, small chapters, and heart pounding moments.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Thank you to the author, the publisher and Net Galley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the story and the characters. I would have wanted some of the characters to be fleshed out a little bit more. They were all so different from each other but interesting in their own way. You do end up wanting to know more about them as the story progresses.

It was a fun read, and I didn't expect the plot twist! I did want the ending to be slightly different, however. I was left feeling a little anti-climactic.

Overall, a great read. I will recommend this book to fellow book readers, and I look forward to reading more from Tom Ryan.

Thank you once again for the ARC.

Three very different characters in a small seaside town. A treasure lost to history. A lot of secrets to uncover.

Dandy is a teenager girl, born and raised in Maple Bay. Peter is almost 40, and has nothing to show up to it. Cass is a young writer, but her first ya novel failed. They all find themselves in Maple Bay, looking for a pirate treasure and unearthing secrets from a prominent family.
I really don’t want to spoil too much (and I just finished reading the book!) but it’s a great thriller with ties to the past. I was so utterly surprised with the twist that I had to put down the book and stare at wall for a solid five minutes. It is done in such a clever way too, planting clues and making you wonder about some writing choices from early on. You know every choice will make sense, but you can’t see how.

The perfect read if you’re looking for something that will keep you glued to the pages - especially from about 1/3 on!

Will post an Italian review on Instagram (with English translation in the caption) in June

If you like “The Goonies” you’ll like this book! Oh wow! The first thing about this book that pulled me in was the cover. The second the title. The writing is wonderful and in such a way that I felt like I was there. I liked how the story is being told, not just from different characters but from different generations. It makes the story rich, intricate and really fun to follow.

The chapters are being told from different characters and it took me a little while to know the different voices to get who was telling the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend reading it!

Peter, Dandy and Cass don't know each other. But their lives are about to become intertwined.

Peter is approaching 40 without much to show for himself. But he receives a letter from the grandmother he had never met. It turns out that he is the heir to a large mansion and fortune. He heads back to Nova Scotia to "meet the family".

Dandy is mourning the loss of her grandfather. But he has plans for her from the grave as he encourages her to become involved in a group that is searching for a long lost pirate treasure.

Cass is an author of mixed success. Her first novel is published but the results are underwhelming. And she is struggling to come up with the topic for her second book. But she receives an invitation to come for an extended house-sitting. And hopefully, the muse will emerge. She heads to the picturesque town in Nova Scotia, for a fateful meeting with Peter and Dandy.

I loved this book. The story is intriguing. The diverse elements are wound together in a creative and lively manner. The characters are wonderfully portrayed, with warts and all. The ending was a masterpiece, totally unsuspected. I highly recommend this book for all mystery lovers.

A great pirate-treasure mystery with treasure that doesn't stay still, suspiciously straightforward deaths, and a cast of interesting characters. I was glued to the story start to end. So glued that I forgot these kinds of stories have twists, and got a big surprise when the twist came!

The pace is good without being too fast. The writing style is enthusiastic and energetic. The history is twisty enough that you have to do a bit of work to keep it in your head, but not so much that you lose track completely. I liked the characters, and it has a very satisfying ending...

I was initially attracted by the 'Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone meets The Goonies' description as Benjamin Stevenson is one of my favourite authors. A well-earned comparison.

* Arc given in exchange for a free and honest review. Thanks to Netgalley.

I really wanted to like this.

I was promised certain things, and I was looking forward to reading a combination of Everyone in my family has killed someone and The Goonies (one of a handful of movies I will stop and watch whenever I come across it).

It started out okay, but then it just stayed in that lane. I admit April is not the greatest reading month for me, but I had a hard time getting thru this. I kept waiting for something to happen. And waiting. And waiting.

There was no character that I was rooting for; they were just there.

And then when something did happen, I felt a bit cheated because even going back, I couldn't find a point in the narrative that I could have had an inkling about the twist. After that, the rest of the book felt like an info dump, just for the purpose of wrapping everything up.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.


I had high hopes for this book. A treasure hunt sounded so promising. However, I found it hard to get in to the story. Chapters were choppy to me. No great character development. Almost didn't finish, but stuck it out.

2 out of 5 ⭐️

Think missing pirate treasure, cosy seaside town and a host of newcomers to stir things up!

★★★★

I am not one to normally reach for an adventure book, but this one really caught my eye and I was not disappointed!

This is a feel-good, cosy adventure mystery full of warm and likeable characters which made reading this an absolute treat. I loved how unique the host of characters was, and how the book covers an entire town across generations without the story becoming complex or convoluted. Ryan writes from all three perspectives which was refreshing and fast paced, always leaving me excited to see what would happen next and to whom. It felt like a puzzle, each new chapter giving us another missing piece towards the conclusion.

Ryan absolutely nailed the twist in this. I was expecting a cosy mystery/adventure, assuming we would simply find the treasure at the end, and that would be that, but surprisingly, the unexpected twist around 3/4ths of the way through worked brilliantly and surprisingly, was completely unguessable for me.

Overall, this book was a breath of fresh air. The premise was simple enough that I could just let myself get lost in the story, with enough breadcrumbs for me to put my mind to work trying to figure out what was going on. I would absolutely read some of Ryan’s YA books following this.

Four stars simply because I felt the writing style did stray more so into YA territory than I was expecting and I think I would have welcomed a sharper edge to really hit the spot.

Review to go live on Wednesday 8 May on linked Instagram page.

FYI - spelling error on line 6, page 162

The Treasure Hunters Club is truly a treasure of its own! A fun, fast paced adventure, that also includes murder, and a twist you won’t see coming!

I’m the type of reader who loves a good mystery and boy, does this book deliver! When Peter gets a letter from his estranged grandmother, on his mother’s side, he decides he’s going to Maple Bay to learn about a life and family he never knew. When he arrives though, he learns of dark family secrets, and the possibility of hidden pirate treasure.

I love Tom Ryan’s writing in this book. Each character was unique and the way he describes the seaside town of Maple Bay, I just want to pack my bags and fly off there this fall! From the perspective of 3 different characters we get our story that is immersive, atmospheric, fasted paced, and thrilling. From start to finish I couldn’t put this book down, and even when I did it’s all I could think about. Not to mention the twist literally had me gasping out loud!

This book will be out in October and I highly recommend you pick this up and give it a read! I want to thank NetGalley, Grove Atlantic, and the author Tom Ryan for the eARC.

In his thrilling page-turning whodunit, The Treasure Hunters Club, Tom Ryan captures the thrill and essence of adventure/mystery novels most of us enjoyed reading when we were kids, in addition to making the story intriguing to an adult audience. Upon further reflection on the plot, I would (tentatively) say that this book can be read by a broad audience [both older and younger (16+) readers] who enjoy murder mysteries.

The Treasure Hunters Club is a multigenerational story told through multiple POVs using different devices and types of narration. Depending on the character the author uses 1st person POV and journal entries, in addition to 3rd person limited. The mix of narration styles and the novel's structure adds another level of suspense and mystery to the plot.

The novel's structure and pace will keep you glued to the book, reading long past your bedtime as you attempt to figure out whodunit before the reveal. The Treasure Hunters Club is an excellent beach read (the setting of the novel is a small idyllic seaside town in Canada, and a pirate treasure is at the heart of the story) with a sprinkle of nostalgic childhood reads (I was reminded of Treasure Island and The Famous Five series of novels) but with a very contemporary way of writing and structuring.

I really loved this! The mystery surrounding the Obelisk treasure’s location that everyone in the story is hunting for is fascinating and I loved how the story had three separate POVs for Dandy, Peter and Cass (mostly) to show each of their journeys on the investigation. Definite Goonies vibes and it was great

Pirate treasure - how that term excites the imagination. Peter comes to Maple Hill to meet his long lost grandmother. Cass is looking for inspiration for her next book. Dandy is mourning the loss of her grandfather. Maple Hill is the home of a famous missing pirate treasure, and Dandy's grandfather leaves her a clue. As Cass and Peter get drawn into the mystery things begin to happen that are hard to explain. Abounding in local characters this is a tale that gathers strength as it progresses to an ending I guarantee you did not see coming. A good mystery and easy read this one moves along and keeps pulling you with it.
Thanks to #NetGalley#TheTreasureHunter'sClub#AtlanticMonthlyPress for the EARC