German Three Investigators Ghost Village and Soccer Trap

In Ghost Village, a boy named Darren asks the boys to come to Oregon to solve a mystery.  Darren is staying in Ridgelake, Oregon, and he keeps seeing a bright light shine out from the lake at night.  The Three Investigators have problems beginning their investigation, since Darren is quite excitable and has forgotten to give them key details, like how an old town lays flooded underneath the waters of the lake.

The book opens with the boys driving through Oregon wondering when they will reach Ridgelake.  Justus is using an old map from 1956 that is no longer accurate, and the other two are annoyed with him.

This book was written in 2007, and I find it interesting how the boys are not using GPS.  They use a paper map, and even worse, one that is 50 years old.

In these German books, the boys have cell phones, but they tend not to use them.  It's like the authors wanted the books to hearken back to an earlier time.

The search underwater through the submerged village is quite thrilling and harrowing.  That part of the story is quite memorable.

The first half of the book is very good, and the second half is outstanding.

In Soccer Trap, Peter has been hired as an assistant to the U.S. national soccer team.  Soon it becomes apparent that someone is sabotaging the team, after several of the players become injured.  Meanwhile, Justus suspects that their old enemy, Hugenay, may be responsible for a series of art thefts.

Here is yet another soccer story, and once again, it involves sabotage.  One of the acts of sabotage involves a large wasp nest that was placed in a player's closet in the hotel.  I tried to figure out exactly how the saboteur would manage to get the wasp nest in the closet without being stung.  It would be tricky.

This book contains mild expletives.

This book has events that remind me of several of the original Three Investigators books.  The book has a mummy.  Hugenay is mentioned.  Venice Beach is mentioned.  A jackal scares people, and this reminds me of the dancing devil.  Bob once again works for Sax Sendler, when he hasn't in most of the other German books I have read.  The Jonas family has an unwanted house guest who hears voices, which makes me think of Singing Serpent.

I have grown tired of all of the soccer stories, but this one pleasantly surprised me.  Most of the book has little to do with soccer.  Aside from the soccer scenes, this book is outstanding.