" The Mystery Of Ghost Dancer Ranch" by Patrick E. Craig

Book Info : Against their wishes, cousins Jacie Masters, (Punkin), and Hannah Roberts, (Boo), are thrown together for the summer at their grandparents’ Ghost Dancer Ranch. What starts as a very boring summer turns dangerous when they find themselves in the middle of an insidious plot to steal the ranch and turn it into a Casino. By clinging to their faith, and with the help of a guardian angel and Jack Wilson, a young Native American man who hopes to lead his people back to prosperity and power through the resurrection of the Ghost Dancer Religion, Punkin and Boo overcome all obstacles to solve the mystery and save the ranch. 

In the best tradition of Franklin W. Dixon's Hardy Boy Mysteries and Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, comes The Adventures of Punkin and Boo, an exciting series of adventure/mystery stories for young children, tweens, and teens (adults will also enjoy them.) Featuring Hannah Roberts (Boo) and Jacie Masters (Punkin), these are the adventures of two teenage cousins who meet for the first time on a summer vacation and fall right into an on-going series of action-packed, page turning, "can't-put-em-down" books that will delight young readers and have them asking for more of The Adventures of Punkin and Boo.

Author Bio: Best-selling author, Patrick E. Craig, is a lifelong writer and musician who left a successful songwriting and performance career in the music industry to follow Christ in 1984. He spent the next twenty-six years as a worship leader, seminar speaker and pastor in churches, and at retreats, seminars and conferences all across the Western United States. After ministering for a number of years in music and worship to a circuit of small churches in Northern California, he is now concentrating on writing and publishing both fiction and non-fiction books. In November, 2011, Patrick signed a three book deal with Harvest House Publishers to publish his "Apple Creek Dreams" series. His Latest work, "The Amish Heiress" (Book One in The Paradise Chronicles series) has been on the best seller lists on Amazon since August. Patrick is represented by the Steve Laube Agency. 

Patrick has an extensive background as a writer. Throughout his school years he edited high school and college newspapers. In 1964 he won a national editorial contest sponsored by the Wall Street Journal for an editorial he wrote on the death of President Kennedy, and, in the same year, acted as Senior Editor for a special issue of the University of Washington Evergreen during a summer internship for High School Editors. After a year at Whitman College, where he was a journalism major, he moved to the San Francisco Bay area where he became a fixture on the local music scene.

As a professional songwriter, he wrote with and for such artists as Bill Champlin (Chicago), David Jenkins (Pablo Cruise), Buddy Miles, The Tazmanian Devils, and many others in the secular music industry. His songs were recorded by such artists and music groups as West Coast Natural Gas, Indian Pudding and Pipe, Joey Covington's Fat Fandango, The Sons of Champlin, The Tazmanian Devils, Buddy Miles, David Jenkins, Laura Allen, The Fairfax Street Choir and in Europe by the Swedish Band Seid. He had two music albums released on Warner Brothers records, and contributed to best selling albums by artists such as Chris Isaak and others. Recently a compilation of his early work was released in Switzerland as a specialty music album.

My Review: "The Mystery Of Ghost Dancer Ranch" by Patrick E. Craig is a mystery that draws the reader into the story from the first chapter. Ok, so it's written for kids ages 8-17 but I loved it and so has other adults. I am looking forward to the next book in this series (The Adventures of Punkin and Boo.)  

"The Mystery Of Ghost Dancer Ranch" reminds me of the "Nancy Drew" books that I loved as a young teen girl but this book has Biblical Truth interwoven into the story. I was a little doubtful with part of the story at first when it was describing the evil demons but then I realized that there is evil in the world and we cannot hide from and hide them from our children and I am happy to say that Patrick Craig dwelt with this scene wonderfully in showing what happens when we apply God's words to the evil in our world. And besides, today kids watch all sorts of movies that have evil and demons without any mention of the truth about God's words.

"The Mystery Of Ghost Dancer Ranch" is a short 113 page book and I recommend it for  Christian kids and parents as well as any reader that loves mysteries that want a clean read. The scenes are well detailed that you can see them in your mind as they are happening on the pages.

I am thinking about buying another copy for my 10 year old grandson. I was given a copy for my honest review by the author and I am giving it five stars.  Don't let my mention of the evil stop you from enjoying the story, I am sure that young readers thats likes mysteries will want to be like Boo and Punkin. And if my church had a church library I would recommend "The Mystery Of Ghost Dancer Ranch" be a part of it. In fact, I  am calling my local liberty to request it be a part of it as soon as I finish writing this review.

I love that Boo and Punkin are just normal girls that have to visit their grandparents farm against their wishes and aren't happy at first. This fact just makes the story more believable and isn't that why we read fiction because we want to believe it could be real. There is also real life characters from history interwoven into the story, like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and the Battle of Little Big Horn and the uprising at Wound Knee. These history facts are just mentioned, not the actual story. I think this is going to be a wonderful new series to be caught up in  for all mystery lovers.