Item - The Mona Lisa is Missing!

I assume that Ramsey Montgomery is a relative of R. A. Montgomery; although this is not explicitly mentioned in the "about the author" section, the fact that he was college-aged when he wrote this book suggests that he was following in the footsteps of Andrea Packard. In any case, I found this adventure to be rather disappointing mishandling of the mystery genre. Theft of the Mona Lisa is hardly an original idea, and the author does little to make the storyline intriguing or to flesh out the various locations visited during the course of the tale. This essential lack of interesting writing is made worse by the book's interactivity. The reader is left in the background all too often, working from other people's clues and often stumbling upon the thieves only to be shoved aside so that the authorities can take care of things. Perhaps this is more realistic than usual for the series, but it doesn't make for very good reading. Without the feeling that the reader is actively solving a mystery, a book like this seems rather pointless.

More reviews by Demian

The Mona Lisa is stolen, and you are called in from the US to come help in tracking it down. Despite being... high school aged?

This book moves fast. Very fast. It actually moves too fast, and it seems to be because the story is too ambitious. The initial split seems to result in four primary paths, each getting roughly the same amount of space.

This results in several sequences that involve you traveling huge distances by car over the course of a sentence. There's an instance where you jump into a taxi, and tell them to follow another car. You turn pages.

"The chase lasts for ten hair-raising minutes and ends when the car your taxi is trailing stops in front of a small apartment building. As the car pulls away, the man enters the building, apparently unaware that you've been following him."

That's a strange chase.

Most of the book feels like this. Something big happens, but the need to push the plot forward prevents you from getting to hear about the exciting stuff.

More reviews by Jordashebasics