The Treasure Hunters Club Series: The Secrets of the Magical Medallions by Sean McCartney
Reviewed by: Chris Singer
About the author:
Sean Paul McCartney (He’s not related to the Beatle) was born in 1971. He graduated from Alfred University in upstate New York with a Bachelor’s in Communications in 1993. From there he played two exciting season traveling around the world with the Washington Generals playing against the world famous Harlem Globetrotters. In 1996 Sean earned his Masters in Education and embarked on a career as a teacher. He is employed by Plain Local Schools in Canton, OH. The first book in the series The Treasure Hunters Club: Secrets of the Magical Medallions introduces the four teens Tommy Reed, Jackson Miller, Shannon McDougal and Chris Henderson. The series is a cross between The Hardy Boys and Indiana Jones with a touch of National Treasure.
About the book:
A Treasure Hunting Legend… Four Ordinary Kids… Two Magical Medallions… Pursued By An Ancient Evil… In One Extraordinary Adventure. Join the Treasure Hunters Club as they look to unlock the Secrets of the Magical Medallions. …Some Secrets Are Better Left Alone. When Tommy Reed received a medallion from his famous treasure hunting uncle “Diamond” Jack Reed he didn’t think much of it. Now an ancient evil is pursuing his every move and his treasure hunting club friends, Shannon McDougal, Jackson Miller and Chris Henderson are on the run. They must unlock the secret to the medallion before evil can hunt them down.
My take on the book:
If you have kids who enjoy action-packed reads, they’re in for a wild ride with this first book in the Treasure Hunter Club series. The Secrets of the Magical Medallions has been called a mix of The Hardy Boys and Indiana Jones with a little piece of the movie, National Treasure, thrown in. I loved reading The Hardy Boys as a kid and the Indiana Jones movies were some of my favorites so I had high expectations for this book. To author, Sean McCarthy’s credit, he nails it here. This is an excellent adventure story. It’s really fast paced and will keep readers anxious to get to the next page.
The best part though for me was the characters. It’s fantastic to see positive and strong female characters alongside their equally positive and strong male counterparts. Although many might automatically think this book is geared exclusively for boys, it’s nice to be able to say both girls and boys could enjoy this read equally.
I did have a few technical issues with the book. Sometimes the transition between scenes isn’t clearly denoted. For example, near the end of the book when the action is taking place at breakneck speed, there are short scenes with mostly dialogue between characters. What happens though is when the action shifts to a different setting and character, it’s not really easy to tell because the break in the writing isn’t significant enough to give the reader a heads up that t