Reviews
“Review by my 10-year old daughter. I am so happy she has found Simon Rose’s books. The Doomsday Mask. She loves them all.
In The Doomsday Mask, a man comes to visit Erica and Josh’s granddad, that had fought with him in World War II. He tells him that the blue stone they’d found together was from an ancient mask, thought to have been from the lost city of Atlantis. Erica and Josh find out that the Crystalline Order, that their granddad’s friend is trying to get the mask for, is bad. Then two kids go on a road trip and find themselves in danger. It was really cool what happened to each of the characters in the end. My favorite part was when they were in the pawn shop and got attacked. It was exciting.”
Amazon, August 2016
“As a youth in war-torn Germany, Paul Jaeger and fellow boy soldier Jonas Krueger accidentally find a mine filled with treasure. Jonas grabs an unusual piece of blue stone just before the mine explodes, and the two boys are thrown into a nearby creek. Sure that Jonas is dead, Paul takes the stone and flees.
Years later, Paul and his grandchildren, twins Josh and Erica, fall into adventure when Jonas finds them again. Jonas tells the story of his rescue by a group called the Crystalline Order after the explosion. He also warns Paul that the Order is plotting to gain world power by rebuilding the Mask of Kulkaan, a relic from Atlantis. The piece of blue stone that Paul and Jonas found in Germany is part of that mask.
A chase across two countries ensues as Paul takes the children to find the pieces of the mask that Jonas has hidden. Carl von Wallenstein, the leader of the Order, and his henchman, Ballantyne, kill Jonas and one of his helpers, seriously injure Paul, and capture the children. As the children fight for their lives, they learn that they are part of a prophecy involving the reincarnation of the mask. Will they be able to fight the temptation to use the mask’s power and destroy it for all time?
Rose takes the reader on a fast-paced adventure through time and legend. Among other issues, the story confronts the battle of good versus evil and exposes the danger of a hunger for power that threatens to consume everything in its path.” TeensReadToo
“The Doomsday Mask is a thrilling page-gripper of a mystery that has 12-year-old Josh and almost-14-year-old Erica scrambling with their grandfather, an adopted Canadian survivor of WW II Germany, in a race for clues to construct and protect the Mask of Kulkaan to prevent it from being used for evil world domination purposes by the corrupt Crystalline Order. In a race against time and history, the two sleuths adventure fearlessly with their grandfather in locations ranging from Niagara Falls and Santa Marta, Mexico in the present day, to the lost island of Atlantis 10,000 years ago. Danger lurks everywhere as does the course of history and even prehistory. Juvenile readers from 10-14 will be spellbound by The Doomsday Mask, and they will learn a bit of interesting world history and paleontology along the way. Although The Doomsday Mask may be considered to be science fiction fantasy/adventure, it is solidly grounded in facts of known prehistorical events and speculates from these logically.” Midwest Book Review
