Genre: historical fiction; Inspirational; intrigue; mystery; humor
Plot Summary: James Holt has held a lot of jobs in his life: rancher, Rough Rider, Wild West showman, father. But being hired as an investigator has never been one of them until now. Arriving in Panama in 1910, he figures he will quickly turn the job down and return to his ranch in the Badlands. But a young girl who reminds him of his daughter needs his help, and he soon finds himself in the hot mess of political intrigue. What happened to Saffire’s mother? What are the canal builders hiding about the recent mysterious deaths? Who are the masked men behind his torture? And just why has he been hired in the first place?
My Book Review: I remember enjoying Brouwer’s Accidental Detective mystery series when I was a kid. I could never get enough of them! But it’s been my experience that good children’s writers don’t make such good adult ones. Since this was the first adult book I’d read by him, I wondered how this would prove.
It turns out that I didn’t have a problem with his level of writing. A lot of the elements of what I loved from the kids’ mysteries were present in Saffire: lots of witty banter, surprising plot twists, hints of romance and lots of danger. James Holt surely did get a few chuckles out of me.
However, as a mystery novel this escaped me but good. Even when I concentrated hard, reread and reread what I just reread, I couldn’t get the same connections Holt seemed to be drawing. The “revealing epilogue” only got me more confused and I still don’t understand what was supposed to have happened. It sort of felt like Brouwer had had a lot of editing to do, the result being lots of missing links.
There were lots of characters- many of them the same type so that they all ran together, or wait- maybe they were the same ones just playing charades, except I couldn’t remember them from their previous appearance in the story. The most interesting ones only surfaced two or three times at most and the title character was dropped a third of the way into the story. T.B. Miskimon (who serves as Holt’s comedic dart board) was almost overused.
This book is published under the Inspirational genre, but there really isn’t more than a sentence to categorize it as such. Just know it’s a clean read and that’s a plus. One of my favorite parts was Holt’s tender father-daughter connection with Saffire. I also liked that the romance wasn’t an overt theme.
I always enjoy learning history in my novels, so it was fascinating reading about the determined American spirit which built the Panama canal, how enormous and innovating the project was. This was one of the things that made Theodore Roosevelt such a great president. What new advances could Americans make with the same grit and ardor, I wonder?
If you like dry, sarcastic humor, I think you will like this one. But if you’re going into it for the intrigue you might be disappointed.
This video the author made is pretty cool! Check it out if you’re at all curious about T.B. Miskimon… Brouwer makes a remarkable discovery.
booklearned 