Name: Hangman's Curse
ISBN: 9780849976162

Frank E. Peretti

When several students at Baker High School are stricken by an alleged curse of the school's ghost, Elijah and Elisha Springfield and their parents, undercover investigators, are sent to uncover the truth behind the events.

Hangman's Curse

Kirsten Simkiss

I read this book as a kid and I loved it back in the day. I remember appreciating how good the mystery was. But, reading it as an adult opened my eyes to just how bad it actually was. Honestly, there were some pretty glaring hints at indoctrinating a child. Not to mention that the book was littered with factual errors that should easily have been caught by a good editor. I’m honestly horrified that as a 12 year old I didn’t catch how absurd the plot was. 

The author is a Christian author, which I knew going in both times. But I didn't notice before how pushy they were with God being the way and the Truth. Some chapters it's mentioned twice a chapter and the ending it's in there repeatedly. I have no gripe with Christianity - my father is a pastor for pete's sake - but the religious overtones were just way too heavy handed.

The premise of the book is kind of ridiculous, honestly. The President of the United States has picked a single family as a cherry-picked project solving team that isn't paid by the government? REALLY? That just doesn't make logical sense.

Also, the bit about evolution? Give me a break. There's no evidence birds evolved from dinosaurs? Are you kidding? Talk about pushing agendas.

Additionally, literally a simple google search on the words "Abel Frye" would have unraveled the case. It was 2000 in the story. They had a metal detector in the school. Google existed. I now want to scream with fury. The only thing of worth in this book is the underlying mystery, but the fact that if they used the internet to do some actual research instead of just trusting the locals to give them the scoops, they would have had it solved with no deaths.

I’m out. I take back my recommendation of this book. It’s so not worth it.