As you’ll recall from the first book in the “Vesper Holly Adventures,” Vesper is a seventeen-year-old orphan who has been turned over to Brinton Garrett and his wife Mary to be their ward. Although Brinnie, as she calls him, is getting on in years, he finds himself feeling somewhat enlivened through spending time with the youthful and exuberant Vesper, and it’s a good thing, too – she keeps dragging him into the most hair-raising adventures.
In “The El Dorado Adventure,” Vesper has invited Brinnie and Mary to come live on her Philadelphia estate for the purposes of helping her sort through her father’s papers. Mr. Holly, now deceased, was an archaeological enthusiast and took notes on everything he did, but had never organized those notes. Brinnie is doing the best he can, but feels it somewhat of a hopeless cause.
One day, Vesper receives a strange telegram from a man named de Rochefort. He asks her to come to El Dorado to discuss business with him, and tells her that her passage has already been booked. Curious, Vesper hunts through her father’s papers until she finds mention of El Dorado. It would appear that Mr. Holly owned some land down in South America, part of it including a dormant volcano. Intrigued, Vesper decides to go meet with de Rochefort, taking Brinnie along with her.
Their host does not meet up with them immediately, however, and the two travelers are forced to entertain themselves as best as they can. They meet some sailors in a local cantina their first night out and strike up an acquaintance, which comes in handy later.
When they do finally meet de Rochefort, they discover that he wants to buy or lease Vesper’s land. He has in mind to build a canal right through it, but Vesper has learned that doing so would put a tribe of native Indians out of a home. There’s even a rumor that de Rochefort wants to drown the tribe. She refuses to let him have access to the land, but then things get dangerous as de Rochefort shows just how serious he is, and persons thought to be friends turn out to have dark secrets of their own. A great young adult read, this book will remind you of Indiana Jones.
(This book was published in 1987 by Puffin Books.)
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