by Coen Hartman
1980 / 195 pages
Rating: GOOD/Great/Give

Hank and Dick are two average teenagers who dive into the deep end of adventure and espionage. The boys’ adventure begins when they agree to help a produce grocer hold down his shop while he picks some forgotten asparagus from his warehouse. While managing the shop, a customer gives the boys an envelope with instructions to deliver it to the grocer when he returns. Due to the boys’ forgetfulness and curiosity, the envelope is not delivered to the grocer until after they have copied the message it contained. This message, much to their delight, was a secret code! After some attempted decoding the boys are well on their way to one of the most thrilling and dangerous times of their young lives. 

I had a great time reading this novel and would recommend it to any reader twelve and up. The pacing and suspense of the story made it very difficult for me to put down. I appreciated that this book is clearly written by a Christian author. Both boys recognize sin and grapple with their own guilt. Another very unique aspect of this novel is that the secret code is actually a numerical code that the reader can attempt to crack on their own before it is solved. 

One caution: do not read the back-cover blurb! It does a great job summarizing the plot but gives away about half of the story.

Canadians can find this at ReformedChristianBooks.com.