Tristan Bancks

A missing father. A drowned town. A buried secret. Three friends on a dangerous mission to uncover the truth. Seven years after Old Scarborough was drowned, a house is emerging from the water. Will and his friends Dar and Juno dare each other to explore it. But when they find bones - and a stash of cash - they realise they’re not the only ones interested in its secrets. Now they’re fighting for their lives against the men who want what they found. Will can’t leave the mystery alone, though. What if the bones belong to his missing dad?… (altro)

Trigger warnings: abusive parent, kidnapping, abduction

6.5/10, looking back at the first book I've read from Tristan Bancks this was an enjoyable read but now I see a lot of glaring flaws in this however I still would read other books he made that might be better than this like Detention and The Fall and I've read another book from him that I've enjoyed which was called Cop and Robber. It begins with the main character Ben Silver living his apparently normal life until police arrive and apparently interrogate his parents, suddenly he, his sister and parents are in the car and arrive at an old cabin in the forest to escape from the police, but for what reason I don't know yet but I found out when I read more of the book. Anyways as I read on I discovered why Ben was on the run and it was because his father was hiding a sinister secret and it was that he hid a lot of money that he got illegally and so Ben ran off on his own into another part of a forest next to a river which took up the middle part of the book. Towards the end Ben finds his way back to civilisation, tells the police what happened so they arrest his father and that wraps up the book nicely.… (altro)

7/10, this was a good novel, but I'm not sure if this is a middle grade or young adult novel, but I enjoyed this one nonetheless. The characters were very interesting, Nash's mother is a police officer, his father is a criminal who didn't have any purpose in life after he was beaten in a boxing match, and thus decided to live a life of crime, and Nash is just caught in the middle of all of this. The story was action packed most of the time, but the pacing can slow down for the main character to interact with other characters, which didn't drag the story down at all. The ending was very emotional, Nash couldn't really forgive himself for trying to help his father rob the school to pay some other criminals until the end, and Nash's mother made a difficult decision to let him rob the school, then let him get arrested, to not get Nash and his father killed. I also liked seeing Nash being a runner, he even won a running race in the end, which was heartwarming. If you like an action packed novel, this is the book for you.… (altro)