Review: Entertaining, fun “prequel” lays solid groundwork for Alpha Adventures series!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 27, 2014
The ensemble cast is intriguing: Travis Monahan teaches anthropology in Atlanta. Adam is his globetrotter college friend. Savannah teaches ancient history at Yale. Fiona is Savannah's friend, an environmentalist who is always getting into trouble, even arrested, for her protests. Thyri is the Norwegian billionaire with an art history degree who funds their investigations/expeditions. They all met at a convention, formed a treasure-hunting group and work together to solve mysteries.When Xenia, their client, claims her family saw Kitezh, the mythical floating city in Russia, the self-dubbed “Adventurers” make plans to travel to Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, to search for the legendary floating structure above it. Of course, the lake holds its own secrets and there are those who wish those secrets to stay secrets.As the story opens, the Adventurers, as they call themselves, are gathering in London and they go through the red tape of finding their way into Russia to investigate for Xenia. (It turns out the easiest way to enter Russia is through Finland. Who knew?)A bail bondsman nicknamed “Mickey Large” is after them and he has his own mercenary agenda. When four of the members of the Adventurers are kidnapped by him, the game is on! I always enjoy a good villain who won’t let go of his prey and will follow them no matter where they go.Finally, after twists and turns, what the Adventurers find when they finally get to Lake Baikal is a stunning revelation. Now, the Adventurers have to decide what to do with what they know before the bad guys in Russia stop them! Villains try to thwart their investigation at every turn.There are guns, danger, pursuit, and truth-versus-legend mystery solving, plus two sets of villains. This novel seems to be an informal prequel to the Alpha Adventurers series, but is a standalone novel in its own right. It unfolds the group’s initial adventure that sets them up for solving treasure mysteries in the related alphabet adventure thriller series, which is based on the same characters.THE ADVENTURERS was an entertaining, fun read in which I got to know the backstory of the main characters of The Alpha Adventure team (the same characters also appear in “A” is for Amethyst, which I also reviewed) and got a good idea of the exciting plotlines that are in store for the investigative group. THE ADVENTURERS laid solid groundwork for the related Alpha Adventure series and I look forward to more of them! – Eve Paludan