Power Boys #4 The Mystery of the Million-Dollar Penny

In the Power Boys #4, The Mystery of the Million-Dollar Penny, Mr. Power and his sons are hiking in Missouri when they spot a plane in trouble.  The plane crashes, but nobody is in the plane!  Later, the boys meet the man who was flying the plane.  He ends up staying at the same farmhouse as Mr. Power and the boys.  Two other men join them, then Mr. Power has to leave on business so that the boys can run wild and torment the others in the farmhouse.

That's not exactly what happens, but it might as well be.  In this story, the author breaks a basic rule in series books.  The boys slip warning notes under the doors of their suspects, hoping to intimidate them.  No, no!  The villains are the ones who are supposed to give the sleuths warning notes so that the sleuths have clues to follow.  While it might be more logical for children to play around with warning notes, that's not how series books work.  The grown men are supposed to give warning notes to the intrepid sleuths.  Yeah.

We finally learn that Chip is 15, two years younger than Jack.  I assumed that Chip was probably a couple of years younger as I read the first couple of books, mainly because of his behavior.  Of course, Jack has not been much more mature.

The arguing between Jack and Chip has increased again.  There were a few times when I wanted to slap both of them.

This story is a bit convoluted.  I found that the further into the story I got, the less I cared.  I enjoyed this story less than I did the third book.  I probably didn't enjoy it anymore than I did the first two books.

By this point, you might be wondering why I am reading these books.  Believe me, I've already been asking myself that very question.

Strangely, I'm enjoying these books because they fall into the category of a book that is so bad that it's kind of good.  These books remind me of the higher-numbered Nancy Drew books from the original 56, many of which are so bad that they are entertaining for that very reason.  The Power Boys books are fun in a quirky fashion.