The Magdalen Islands Mystery

Lorraine Douglas is the youth services co-ordinator at the Winnipeg
Public Library.

Originally published in French, this addition to the Junior Nature
series features Will and Julie, who were introduced in The Cliff Case.
Will has won an ecology contest, and his prize is two weeks at summer
camp on the Magdalen Islands. His parents arrange for his older sister,
Julie, to attend the camp too, and they set off on their adventure. On
the beach Will discovers unusual activities and suspects a stranger in a
trench coat of stealing the eggs of the endangered piper plover. Will
and Julie follow their suspect to the airport and eventually find
themselves stuck as stowaways aboard the plane. Their suspect, a woman,
has been stealing the eggs, they learn, but she has, in turn, been
taking them to a sanctuary for endangered birds that she created. She
returns the children to the Magdalen Islands, and they promise to keep
their secret about the sanctuary.

This novel has little suspense, character development, atmosphere, or
sense of place. Its black-and-white line drawings are undistinguished.
Readers looking for stories with an ecological theme would find Linda
Bailey’s mystery How Come the Best Clues Are Always in the Garbage? or
Brian Doyle’s Spud Sweetgrass more appealing. Not recommended.