Audio Review - The Trail of the Red Diamonds

The Trail of the Red Diamonds
By: L. Ron Hubbard
Director: Jim Meskimen
Voice Cast: Tait Ruppert, Crispian Belfrage, R.F. Daley, Shane Johnson, Jim Meskimen, Josh Robert Thompson, Robert Wu and Michael Yurchak
Publisher: Galaxy Press
ISBN: 978-1592123261
Pub Date: October 8, 2010
Running Time: Approx. 2 hours

The 1930s and the 1940s has been called the Golden Age, a time where people didn't sit at home watching reality television and surfing the internet. People spent their free time going to movie shows and they also read magazines and dime store books. During these years many fancy magazines and pulp magazines were in circulation, which gave authors an opportunity to publish short stories. Since there were so many different types of fiction magazines, authors published their short stories in record numbers and this was a good way to make a little extra income as most magazines paid per word.

One of these authors was L. Ron Hubbard. The majority of the general public knows him as the guy who invented Scientology and some may turn away when they see his name because of it without realizing that he was also a talented author. Stories from the Golden Age is releasing his short stories in paperbacks and audiobooks, in which they kindly sent me this audiobook free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

L. Ron Hubbard often used different pen names during these years, in which case he used the name Lt. Jonathan Daly for the story The Trail of the Red Diamonds that first appeared in the January 1935 issue of Thrilling Adventures. The main character's name just happens to be Lt. Jonathan Daly who is recovering from being shot at the Gran Chaco hospital. While there he happens to get a hold of the manuscript about Marco Polo's travels. The book reveals the location of Kublai Khan's burial.

Review - Cynthia's Attic: The Missing Locket

Cynthia’s Attic: The Missing Locket
BY: Mary Cunningham
PUBLISHED BY: Echelon Press
PUBLISHED IN: 2005
ISBN: 978-1590804414
Pages: 150
Reviewed by Billy Burgess  

            In the summer of 1964, two twelve-year-old best friends Cynthia and Augusta (everyone calls her ‘Gus’) decided to explore Cynthia’s family attic. Her parents are planning on cleaning it out soon and the girls want to check it out to see if they can find anything they want to keep. The girls come upon an old trunk and are memorized by it. Mysteriously, the girls are swept fifty years into the past, where they try to unravel what happened to Cynthia’s great-great Aunt Belle, who vanished years ago without a trace. While on their adventure, the girls take a ride on the seven seas and they must also try to find a locket that was thought to be lost.

 “The Missing Locket” is the first book in the series that follows in the footsteps of the Nancy Drew, and the Boxcar Children. I can’t believe I let this book sit around in my eBook reader for several months before making time to read it. Being an amateur genealogist myself, I found the premise of traveling back in time to help your ancestors to be intriguing. Now of days, the tween market is full of “Twilight” clones, so it was a bit of fresh air to find an exciting adventure written for kids that doesn’t involve creatures of the night. The main characters are two twelve-year-olds, so I was a bit surprised to see kids at this age to be excited about finding old family heirlooms to be thrilling, but Cynthia’s Attic is set in a more simpler time, before cable, cell phones, video games, and the internet. Despite being a mystery with a bit of a science fiction twist, the book offers great humor between the two girls as they try to change the past. I recommend Cynthia’s Attic: The Missing Locket to readers of all ages.


*I would like to thank the author for sending me a copy to review.