What a fun read! The Pullman Hilton novel is a heartwarming Christmastime mystery story. It's a quick, easy page-turner with a storyline that makes the book hard to put down until the very end. In addition to the Maple Avenue Gang of kids, the book characters include a stately ghost, hobos (good and bad), town folk (good and bad), and family. The excitement includes dangerous chases, gunplay, knife throwing, and lots of scheming.
This book is a fast-moving winter's tale of mystery that centers on the escapades of seven youngsters as they seek adventure and encounter the unknown during a Depression-era Christmas. "The Maple Avenue Gang," as the seven are called, seeks to divert their attention from the prospect of a few presents under the tree Christmas morning. Six ten-year-old boys and one precocious eleven-year-old girl consider several forays before settling on exploring a Pullman train car graveyard. Do they come face to face with both honorable and wicked hoboes and a mysterious figure who comes and goes-is he a ghost or spirit-good or evil?
By Humberto Shugrue