Erin Dionne. Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting. New York: Penguin, 2014.

Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting is the second in a series of YA novels featuring a group of friends in the Boston area who solve mysteries. In the first installment, Ollie Truong helped solve the mystery of the paintings stolen from Boston’s Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum—a work of fiction because, alas, they are still missing in 2015.

Ollie is told by the FBI to lay low for a while, so his parents suggest that he join some Wilderness Scouts as they camp on one of the Boston Harbor Islands. The Harbor Islands are now operated by the National Park Service, and apparently scout groups can camp there. In recent YA titles, no one seems to belong to the Boy Scouts any more. I am not sure if that is because they have become proprietary like the National Football League or if New York publishers consider them politically incorrect.

When I lived in the Boston area, the islands were off limits to the public. Now people may visit many of them (there are 34 in all) with permission. Ollie makes some new friends since this is not his own troop. Nearly every scout troop has its bully, and Derek is the one dedicated to making life miserable for Ollie.

Ollie, however, does get involved in an adventure. He, his new friend Chris, and the ranger’s daughter Grey discover an unusual hiding place on one of the other islands. Could this be pirate treasure? Will Derek mess it up for everyone?

The plot is not unlike those of Tony Abbot’s young adult adventures. Derek sounds a lot like Darren from Gordon Korman’s Swindle series. Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting does appeal to the imagination, and there is plenty of suspense and action. Author Dionne does are pretty good job of getting the setting down, though for some reason the ranger works for the National Parks Service, rather than Park Service. In her acknowledgments she credits Bob Stymeist, who is one the real experts when it comes to birds of Massachusetts.