Checkmate in the Carpathians by Mary Reeves Reeves Bell

Product Details

Synopsis

Book 3 in the Passport to Danger! series finds Con and Hannah headed to Romania to visit her uncle. Their trip turns dangerous, though, when they undertake an investigation that sets them against a neo-Nazi movement.

Annotation

A skiing trip to Romania with the new American ambassador becomes more exciting than they had planned when Constantine Kaye and his friend Helen visit the estate of Con's elderly Viennese neighbor and become involved in a rally of neo-Nazis in Romania.

Children's Literature

Sixteenyearold Constantine Kaye and his best friend, Hannah, travel from Austria to Romania during their winter break to ski in the Carpathian Mountains with Hannah's relatives. But their vacation takes some unexpected turns when they try to honor an unusual request from Con's elderly neighbor. Imprisoned by Romania's brutal Iron Guard during WWII for hiding Jews on her family's estate, Mia Rozstoski asks Con to visit her beloved home and try to discover what happened to the son of a dear friend. When Con and Hannah arrive in Iasi, they are surprised to learn that the government is unveiling a statue of Marshal Ion Antonescu, the sadistic leader of the old Iron Guard, and that the dedication is suspected to turn into a neoNazi rally. Danger is their constant companion as they race through the countryside seeking truths from the past and trying to help an orphan named Poppy. Bell infuses her story with firsthandknowledge of the plight of Romania's abandoned children. Geographical and historical liberties are explained in the author's note. This is the third book in the "Passport to Danger Series." 2000, Bethany House Publishers, Ages 12 up, $5.99. Reviewer: Ellen R. Braaf