A lost treasure, a wicked pirate's curse and an enchanted pocket watch could be the end of 6 boys in Maine if a coded inscription on the inside of the watch isn't figured out... Get your Signed copy today! Other options: Buy your copy! Amazon Amazon.co.uk Froogle Barnes & Noble.com Creatures 'n Crooks Bookshoppe Mystery Loves Company, Inc. GumShoe Press Summer vacation in Maine promises to be exciting for Shawn and his friends until they uncover a lost treasure from an evil pirate named Simon de Cruel and a very special watch. Each boy decides to keep some of the treasure for himself, but an inscription on the inside of an enchanted pocket watch warns of danger to those who touch the pirate's treasure. One by one the boys begin to disappear, and the curse of the pirate touches the lives of all those close to Shawn. It's up to him to discover the secret of the watch, save the lives of his friends, and put an end to the wickedness unleashed on his home town - before time runs out!   Excerpt It was a beautiful gold pocket-watch. The front of it was engraved with a sailing ship cutting though the waves and dolphins racing along side of it. I had to use my thumb-nail to pry it open and was surprised to see the great condition it was in. I was so absorbed in looking it over that I didn’t notice the silence that fell over my friends. They had crowded around me, straining to see over my shoulders at what had captured my attention. “Cool,” Jay half whispered. “I’ll say,” Rick said, his itching seemed to have finally stopped. “Let me see, Shawn,” Bobby said, gently taking it out of my hands. “Hey, what’s that writing?” Carl asked, pointing to the inside cover of the watch. Bobby turned the watch so he could get a better view while he read an inscription engraved on the inside of the watch cover, “Put it back, and walk away, and you may live, to see another day.” A brief silence fell over us as we were lost in separate thoughts about the nerve racking rhyme. “What’s that suppose to mean?” Steve asked, in with a cocky attitude. “I knew it!” Carl exclaimed, suddenly trembling and backing away. We stared at him as his eyes got bigger and he pointed and shouted, “It’s a curse! It’s a curse!”

Super Suspense!
Heather, Reviewer
Great Young Adult Books
Heather, Great Young Adult Books(5/16/2003)
This book is an old-style mystery with a nail biting ending. It's a book you just can't put down!


As Good As It Gets!
Kimberly Lightfoot
Scribes World Reviewer (3/18/2003)
Summer vacation in Maine can either be gloriously relaxing or hideously boring. For six young friends it turns out to be the adventure of a lifetime that almost ends their lives. In WOUND TOO TIGHT The Hardy Boys meets Scooby Doo in a captivating story about what happens when six friends find a cursed treasure linking them too an evil pirate from times past. Shawn is the protagonist of the story and it’s up to him to solve the mystery of Simon De Cruel’s power in order to send him back where he came from and free his friends. I truly enjoyed reading WOUND TOO TIGHT it is relatively short, the perfect length for a child who is just beginning to read books on their own. The plot is reminiscent of other children’s mystery novels but the writing is what stands out. It seems to read as a diary of an actual person instead of a book conjured out of nothingness from a writer. I became engrossed in the story and was sorry to see it end. In cases like this I wish the book were longer and more detailed, however I am an adult with an adult’s attention span, for any child who is fortunate enough to read this book the length is just right. For anyone who is looking to encourage their child to read, I highly recommend WOUND TOO TIGHT. It will be the start of a beautiful friendship with books forever.


Great Old Fashioned Suspense
Rick Mohr
Dream Forge & Midwest Book Reviews
"Wound Too Tight" is the captivating tale of 6 young boys and their discovery of lost pirate treasure. While that might sound as much of a tried old formula as an ancient Indian burial ground, author T.J. Perkins has mixed in enough magic and adventure to leave a reader spellbound. The treasure of Simon de Cruel (love that name) at first seems like a godsend to Shawn, Steve, Jay, Bobby, Carl, and Rick, but is quickly becomes more than they bargained for with the winding of an old watch discovered in one of the chests.

As his friends start disappearing one by one, Shawn discovers that the watch is cursed, that by it ticking it has returned the pirate de Cruel to life, and he is not ready to give that up. De Cruel takes Shawn's friends and turns them into mindless crewmembers for his ship, pirate zombies if you will (my name, not hers) and it is up to Shawn to not only rescue his friends, but also see that de Cruel is stopped.

If there is some magic to writing a children's book that is filled with adventure and excitement, Ms. Perkins has certainly found the proper spell. Her characters are kids; they interacted as I expected boys to do, and their dialogue never once sounded like it was the words of an adult trying to sound like a child. I'm sure you have read work like that-either the writer writes so far down to his audience that a ten year old sounds like a five, or they place fake hip slang that hasn't been used since they were a child themselves. Her kids in this book are just that-kids. Refreshingly, the adults are neither played as buffoons or as staunch authorities, but as adults from a child's perspective.

Let me just say this as simply as I can, read this book, but most importantly, let your children read it. And if you don't have any, well, get one of the neighbor's kids and read it with them. The entire family can enjoy this book with no qualms or misgivings, kudos to Ms. Perkins.