Yukon Gold Mystery

Yukon Gold Mystery, which is set in the 1950s, finds Charlie and Victoria staying with their friends, Edward and Clare, in Echo Valley on the Yukon River between Whitehorse and Dawson City. Their father is captain of the S.S. Klondike which travels up and down the river, and he has left the children with their friends for a holiday. Coincidently, as the paddle-wheeler is getting unloaded, Edward and Clare’s mother is hit by one of the ship’s trolleys as it comes down the ramp. She falls and breaks her leg, an event which necessitates a trip to Dawson City for Edward and Clare’s parents.

The four children are left on their own to fend for themselves for several days while their mother gets treatment. (Edward and Victoria are 14 and Charlie and Clare are 10-years-old.) Edward and Clare need to hike to their hunting cabin on the Telegraph Trail to check on their dog and her new puppies. Along the way, they run into two questionable characters, Red and Zeke, who are sinister and seem dangerous. What follows is an adventure involving missing gold, something which Red and Zeke are sure Charlie knows more about than he is telling. In an effort to protect the two younger children, Edward and Victoria send Charlie and Clare off to the hunting cabin on their own along the Telegraph Trail.

I love the idea of this story. It is set it the 1950s in the Yukon and involves the historical Telegraph Trail which played an important part of history beginning in 1865. I was so looking for a great read as I opened the cover of the book. Unfortunately, for several reasons, the story did not live up to my expectations.

To begin with, there was confusion as to the background of Victoria and Charlie in the first chapter of the book. The story begins with them on the S.S. Klondike, but we don’t learn until well into the first chapter that they travel on the paddle-wheeler regularly, and, in fact, the captain of the boat is their father. We also don’t learn until the end of the first chapter that the story is taking place in the 1950s. There were very few hints throughout the book, for example, clothing, mention of music or news items, that would place the story in the Fifties. It would have been helpful to have the date mentioned at the beginning of the first chapter. It would also help young readers if, every once in a while, in the story, there was some mention of the date or something to keep the time setting in the reader’s mind.

Another point of confusion was the dialogue of the characters. Although there was some Fifty-ish jargon and sayings, they were very few and far between. Most often, the four main characters, Edward, Victoria, Charlie and Clare, sounded like present-day children. They used words like ‘morphed’ and ‘superfast’. I found it difficult to suspend reality and believe this story was taking place in the 1950s when the children sounded so modern. I believe this would be an issue as well for children reading the story.

Along that point, I found many of the scenes and actions of the children unbelievable. They realize quickly in the story that Red and Zeke are very dangerous and have most likely already killed another man to get the gold. However, the children do things that contradict the way I think kids would behave in similar situations. They sass the men and ask demanding questions that make the men mad. At one point in the story, Edward has a gun pointed at him. Instead of cowering or freezing, or at least thinking that he’s in danger, he continues to call advice to Charlie and actually walks away from the gun. I had trouble relating to the actions of the characters in these scenes.

The author did a good job of researching and writing about the Telegraph Trail as well as speaking to the Indigenous people of the area in order to write accurately about the medicinal herbs and plants. Both are pluses to the story. Because of the research the author has done and included in the story, I recommend Yukon Gold Mystery with reservations.