300 Minutes of Mystery by Jack Heath

Title: 300 Minutes of Mystery

Author: Jack Heath

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: Scholastic

Published: 1^st August 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 192

Price: $15.99

Synopsis: 10 stories. 10 mysterious situations. 10 brave kids. 30 minutes of clues. Mercer stole a secret message. What happens when the spies find out? Hamzi is trapped in a maze. Why is his brother trying to kill him? Charlene’s room escape game suddenly turns deadly. Can she figure out why? Jack Heath’s ten nail-biting and mysterious short stories will intrigue and terrify during each 30-minute countdown, as dangerous situations play out right down to the last crucial moment.

Read 10 dangerous stories, in 30 minutes* of reading time!

*Based on average reading speed.

~*~

Jack Heath is back at it with his Mystery series, which is connected to the Minutes of Danger series. This time, we have ten short stories that can be read in half an hour each, roughly. But there is more than that going on – the characters are against a thirty-minute countdown in their stories, indicated by a timer at the side of the page in each story as they run from spies, try to get out of mazes, or face certain death with bombs and landmines – all the usual Jack Heath fare for these stories, of course. From Mercer in the 1980s running from two spies after he stole a secret message that he didn’t know about, to Charlene trying to work out who the traitor in the escape room is, and Kelsey dealing with a super laser. Each story is fast paced, centred on a single event threaded with mystery, danger, and fear, and I felt like the danger got more intense with each story. This worked well, ensuring that you keep reading – Jack’s books do this a lot, and he makes it work well for all his audiences and books, though I think he does it well in his books that have a sense of danger, like his thrillers and mysteries.

Jack’s characters in these stories don’t shy away from danger or at times, questionable actions as they try to survive their stories. This is where the tension comes in and is what kept me reading – the desire to find out how the characters got themselves out of the dilemmas they found themselves in.

Jack has cleverly linked the stories in this book together, and I think with 200 Minutes of Mystery with the SPII – School for Pupils of International Intelligence – and the head of an organisation with sinister intentions as well as some of the characters popping in and out of each story. These links help propel the series along and ensures that readers are hooked throughout and will read the entire series – I am now wondering whether the Minutes of Danger books have similar links to each other and this series – it would be interesting to see and know. I felt that each story built on each other and is leading up to something big, as there was no resolution as such – a lot of loose ends that look as though they’re going to tie up in a later book, I hope. Building to something big in this way is a cool way to keep readers interested and keen to find out how things will resolve – if they do, that is. I am really enjoying this series and can’t wait for the next one. These short stories are contained yet interlinked and I think that is a really engaging way of writing these stories and putting this book together.

I like the way Jack Heath writes dangerous mystery books for children and adults – it is as though you can start with his Stunt Kid books and work their way up to the thrills and chills of books like If You Tell Anyone, You’re Next or Kill Your Brother. He targets his audience with plot and character, and delivery well, and ensures that everything is intricately pulled together. His books are intriguing and even his children’s ones up the ante, putting everything on the line. I think this is a fun and action-packed series that readers who enjoy mysteries and thrillers will enjoy.