The year is 1919. The setting is Baddeck, Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island where the half-salty waters of Bras d'Or Lake provide a perfect testing spot for the latest inventions in water travel. On the shore is the Bell Mansion, a beautiful and interesting property where Alexander Graham Bell lives and works on his many inventions, and where he is in charge of a great number of researchers, builders and helpers. To live and work at the Bell Mansion means your are "one of the family."
Enter Billy McKlintock, aged 15 but looks like 19. He's forced by his mom to leave Halifax for the summer and take a job as a servant at the Bell Mansion. She thinks he's getting in too much with the wrong crowd- the gambling and the sneaking out at night and all that. She wants Billy out of Halifax- and if he returns before summer's end she'll be calling the police!
Billy is privately struggling with a gambling habit, dishonesty and hurt feelings about his dad who has been away way too much. But when he meets the old man Bell, and gets beaten at his favourite game- poker- a new friendship starts that will take Billy into a life-risking adventure as he helps protect one of the greatest inventions Bell ever made: the hydrofoil.
Highly recommended because of the non-stop action and the references to playing poker. The whole story is very believable, and includes references to the international war developments at the time.
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Reading level: grade 6 and up
Genre: historical fiction
Topics: post WW1 Canada, Alexander Graham Bell, gambling
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