Thursday, February 22, 2018

The Black Island

The Black Island (Tintin, #7)

The Black Island is the seventh of the Tintin series. The story starts off with a bang as Tintin is out for a walk with his dog Snowy and comes upon a plane that appears to be in trouble. The plane makes an emergency landing, and when Tintin approaches to see if he can help, he is shot for his trouble! Luckily it's just a grazing wound, and he wakes up in the hospital more or less okay. There he hears from the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson that an unregistered plane has crashed in England, and they have been put on the case. Coincidence? Surely not. 

Tintin checks himself out of the hospital and proceeds to investigate, and the usual crazy chain of events ensues. Tintin is soon matching wits with those who don't want him snooping around. He gets captured, escapes (with the help of Snowy) and soon runs afoul of a Dr. Muller, who appears to be the ringleader of a band of forgers. He chases the bad guys all over England and ends up in Scotland, where he traces them to a crumbling castle on a desolate island. The castle is apparently not uninhabited however- there is a local legend of a mysterious creature that resides there, and no one ever returns. This doesn't deter Tintin and Snowy of course, and when they arrive they find the legend to be true- although it's not what they would have expected. More hijinks ensue, Snowy comes to the rescue again, and Tintin finally comes face to face with the ringleader of the whole operation- and gets a bit of timely last minute assistance. It's pretty much nonstop action from the get-go. I almost got breathless reading this! 

We found this on vacation and had to get it. My daughter loves these and we had a lot of fun laughing over this one.This is an earlier one in the series so the larger supporting cast of later volumes is absent- it's mostly Tintin and Snowy here, but that's fine and it works. The artwork is superb as always, and really gives you a feel for the locations that Tintin goes to. This one has it all- a chase on a train, plane crashes, you name it. A fun, action packed story and a joy to look at as well.    

17 comments:

  1. I used to read all the Tintin books our library had when I was a kid!

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    1. I've read quite a few but there are many I haven't gotten to!

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  2. I love reading your reviews for these - and looking at the covers. Such fun.
    Lynn :D

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    1. Thanks- I'm glad you like reading these. And the covers ARE fun.

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  3. So nostalgic, Greg! I am loving these reviews!

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  4. Love that cover! This is a series I never got into. I better change that! :)

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    1. I like that cover too. And these are lots of fun!!

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  5. I didn't read these as a kid, but I've been looking for new books for my son! We've read his a million times, and we go to the library at least twice a week (usually bringing home the maximum 50 books...)

    Do You Dog-ear?

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    1. These would be great, they're full of adventure...

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  6. I've never heard of this one. Sounds interesting though.

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  7. This is new to me, but it sounds great. Thanks for the intro, Greg!

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  8. Hmm, this is actually one I don't really remember. I may have to dig it up to do a reread.

    ~Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum

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  9. Tintin :D ...and captain Haddock. He's probably one of my fave characters in literature. I like the alcoholic ones :D

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  10. Oh this sounds delightful and action-packed. Great review Greg :)

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  11. Why am I not reading this series? This sounds amazing as has every book you've reviewed so far. I need to go see if my library has this series. Otherwise it's off to Amazon!

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