The Mystery Man

The Mystery Man by Scott Corbett (1970) Scott Corbett is one of my favorite children’s book authors, especially for mysteries (some involving treehouses, boats, or both), though he wrote a variety of books—he really cranked them out. You can still find his books in used bookstores. I’d never read this one. It starts out a little odd and slow, and it takes place in a very limited location and time period, with few characters—almost as if it were a play. It feels a bit claustrophobic at first, but once the mystery gets underway, we forget that. A high school age boy, Tod, is recovering from an appendectomy, staying at his Uncle Gary’s seaside inn at the beginning of summer. He’s not totally stuck inside, but he can’t really go adventuring. A mystery is presented, involving an eccentric, old, radio personality known as The Mystery Man, who is a regular for breakfast at the inn, and a friend of Uncle Gary. A few extremely unpleasant characters then visit the inn and are part of the mystery—which is about a coded message and a hidden fortune. It’s one of those mysteries that the reader gets pretty much the same information as the main character, Tod, but the solution is not the least bit obvious—and its solution turns out to be fun and satisfying.