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Choose Your Own Adventure #42
The Mystery of Echo Lodge
While investigating a series of bizarre and frightening occurrences at Aunt Sadie's ski lodge, the reader is captured by two strange men, in this multiple-plot adventure
118 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 15, 2015
It's so good that after twenty years I will still read it from time to time. Brings back many good memories of happier times (even if the story is a little dark).
July 2, 2026
The Mystery of Echo Lodge, Louise Munro Foley's third Choose Your Own Adventure, has a similar title to her second, The Mystery of the Highland Crest. The books are unrelated, but could Ms. Foley produce another near classic like that one? You are visiting your aunt Sadie in December at Echo Lodge, the ski resort she owns close by Lake Tahoe. You meet Sadie's bellman, Russell Lyons, as well as Heidi, a detective Sadie has on staff in response to recent trouble at Echo Lodge. You haven't even settled in when the fire alarm screeches, and Heidi orders you to evacuate the lodge. On the second floor you hear commotion in Room 223, but the door is locked and no one heeds your call. Should you run downstairs for the key at the front desk, or barge your way inside?
Searching for the key, you find a diamond wristwatch among Heidi's belongings...the same watch reported stolen last night from Countess Maria, who's staying at Echo Lodge. Shortly after, you overhear an unknown person plotting for skiers to suffer an accident. Should you report it to Heidi, or Sadie? Tell Sadie, and she informs you of the "Paiute jinx." Russell, a member of the Pit River Indian tribe, warned Sadie last year against expanding the lodge onto sacred tribal grounds. Is the jinx now inevitable? Sadie assigns you simple maintenance tasks to keep you out of harm's way; while working, you may learn Heidi is about to visit the ski slopes with a Mr. Yarman. Is he her accomplice in sabotaging Echo Lodge? After all, you found the countess's wristwatch in Heidi's cubby. If you chose earlier to help the chef prepare meals, his assistant, Karen, asks you to taste his specialty soup before it's served to customers. Politely decline, and you learn the soup is drugged; was it Karen? The lodgers lose consciousness, and thieves show up to rob them. If you sipped the soup when Karen offered, you pass out and awaken locked in a room of an unfamiliar hotel. Climb out the window to get help, but if Karen’s henchmen catch you, they'll maroon you on Emerald Island in the middle of Lake Tahoe. Can you survive the extreme seasonal cold? Perhaps the cheerful ghost of Captain Dick, a Brit who died a century ago, shows up to lend a hand.
Did you choose to break down the door of Room 223 rather than run downstairs for the key? To your astonishment, the door is suddenly unlocked. The room is empty but for a gray hawk who goes on the attack. You scramble downstairs, lightly bleeding and confused. Address your concerns to Russell the bellman and he dismisses them, but he's hiding something. Run back up to Room 223 and, incredibly, Russell is there...offering to explain everything. He says a Mr. Hawkins, a "gray shaman" of the Pit River tribe, is behind the Paiute jinx and wants to eliminate Echo Lodge. Go with Russell to the mountain to shatter Mr. Hawkins's curse, and your ideas of the supernatural will be stretched to the limit. Can you defeat the gray shaman and preserve Echo Lodge against tragedy? Traverse the mountain toward its summit and you could witness a death match between Hawkins's hawk and Russell's own spirit animal, a mountain lion. Barring that, you have to stop Hawkins from triggering a disaster-level avalanche, but are you powerful enough without Russell's spiritual weaponry? There's a way or two of rescuing Echo Lodge and not interacting with shaman magic at all, but in most cases success hinges on Russell.
I suppose it’s possible to reconcile this book's various narrative paths so internal consistency remains unbroken, but you'd have a lot of work to do. It's more reasonable to conclude The Mystery of Echo Lodge has, at best, spotty consistency; sometimes the sabotage against Echo Lodge is done by the owner of the rival Maple Leaf Inn, and other times it's supernatural. The inconsistency creates a bumpy ride for the reader, and a surprisingly dull one. Louise Munro Foley reverts to the lack of discipline that marred her first Choose Your Own Adventure, The Lost Tribe, instead of the wisdom and intense drama that lifted The Mystery of the Highland Crest to decidedly above average. I rate The Mystery of Echo Lodge one and a half stars, but it's not much fun, and little reason exists to reread it.
Searching for the key, you find a diamond wristwatch among Heidi's belongings...the same watch reported stolen last night from Countess Maria, who's staying at Echo Lodge. Shortly after, you overhear an unknown person plotting for skiers to suffer an accident. Should you report it to Heidi, or Sadie? Tell Sadie, and she informs you of the "Paiute jinx." Russell, a member of the Pit River Indian tribe, warned Sadie last year against expanding the lodge onto sacred tribal grounds. Is the jinx now inevitable? Sadie assigns you simple maintenance tasks to keep you out of harm's way; while working, you may learn Heidi is about to visit the ski slopes with a Mr. Yarman. Is he her accomplice in sabotaging Echo Lodge? After all, you found the countess's wristwatch in Heidi's cubby. If you chose earlier to help the chef prepare meals, his assistant, Karen, asks you to taste his specialty soup before it's served to customers. Politely decline, and you learn the soup is drugged; was it Karen? The lodgers lose consciousness, and thieves show up to rob them. If you sipped the soup when Karen offered, you pass out and awaken locked in a room of an unfamiliar hotel. Climb out the window to get help, but if Karen’s henchmen catch you, they'll maroon you on Emerald Island in the middle of Lake Tahoe. Can you survive the extreme seasonal cold? Perhaps the cheerful ghost of Captain Dick, a Brit who died a century ago, shows up to lend a hand.
Did you choose to break down the door of Room 223 rather than run downstairs for the key? To your astonishment, the door is suddenly unlocked. The room is empty but for a gray hawk who goes on the attack. You scramble downstairs, lightly bleeding and confused. Address your concerns to Russell the bellman and he dismisses them, but he's hiding something. Run back up to Room 223 and, incredibly, Russell is there...offering to explain everything. He says a Mr. Hawkins, a "gray shaman" of the Pit River tribe, is behind the Paiute jinx and wants to eliminate Echo Lodge. Go with Russell to the mountain to shatter Mr. Hawkins's curse, and your ideas of the supernatural will be stretched to the limit. Can you defeat the gray shaman and preserve Echo Lodge against tragedy? Traverse the mountain toward its summit and you could witness a death match between Hawkins's hawk and Russell's own spirit animal, a mountain lion. Barring that, you have to stop Hawkins from triggering a disaster-level avalanche, but are you powerful enough without Russell's spiritual weaponry? There's a way or two of rescuing Echo Lodge and not interacting with shaman magic at all, but in most cases success hinges on Russell.
I suppose it’s possible to reconcile this book's various narrative paths so internal consistency remains unbroken, but you'd have a lot of work to do. It's more reasonable to conclude The Mystery of Echo Lodge has, at best, spotty consistency; sometimes the sabotage against Echo Lodge is done by the owner of the rival Maple Leaf Inn, and other times it's supernatural. The inconsistency creates a bumpy ride for the reader, and a surprisingly dull one. Louise Munro Foley reverts to the lack of discipline that marred her first Choose Your Own Adventure, The Lost Tribe, instead of the wisdom and intense drama that lifted The Mystery of the Highland Crest to decidedly above average. I rate The Mystery of Echo Lodge one and a half stars, but it's not much fun, and little reason exists to reread it.
March 28, 2021
La verdad está bueno, me pareció lo que si la trama infantil, pero ya me lo esperaba, ya que este tipo de libros suelen ser así.
Igual el hecho de que sea un libro de "Elige Tu Propia Aventura", cambia todo.
A mí desde chica me gustaban este tipo de libros, y tengo que admitir que con este estuve un buen rato. Tenía más de como 20 finales distintos, y hasta que los leí todos, me entretuvo mucho.
3,5/5
Igual el hecho de que sea un libro de "Elige Tu Propia Aventura", cambia todo.
A mí desde chica me gustaban este tipo de libros, y tengo que admitir que con este estuve un buen rato. Tenía más de como 20 finales distintos, y hasta que los leí todos, me entretuvo mucho.
3,5/5
July 5, 2020
La serie de Elige tu propia aventura es, literalmente, un clásico de nuestra infancia. He releído algunos, años después, y me parecen un poco cortos de miras, limitados en las posibilidades, pero cuando tenía 10 años cada uno de ellos era una maravilla lista para ser explorada hasta que hubiera dado todo lo que tenía dentro.
Al final siempre sabías que ibas a recorrer todos y cada uno de los caminos posibles. La emoción estaba, por tanto, en ganar y pasarte la historia al primer intento. Si no podías, pues nada, seguro que en el intento 18 acababas encontrando el camino. A veces los autores iban "a pillar", poniéndote los resultados buenos detrás de decisiones que eran claramente anómalas.
Recuerdo haber aprendido tanto palabras como hechos y datos en estos libros. No nadar contra la corriente cuando quieres llegar a tierra, dónde colocarse cuando un avión va a despegar, un montón de cosas interesantes y un montón de historias vividas, decenas por cada libro, que convirtieron a las serie en una colección fractal, donde cada vez podías elegir un libro nuevo entre los que ya tenías.
Llegué hasta el tomo 54 y dejé de tener interés por la serie, pero la serie siguió hasta superar los 180 títulos. Tal vez mis hijos quieran seguir el camino que yo empecé. Si quieres que lo sigan, pasa a la página 7.
Al final siempre sabías que ibas a recorrer todos y cada uno de los caminos posibles. La emoción estaba, por tanto, en ganar y pasarte la historia al primer intento. Si no podías, pues nada, seguro que en el intento 18 acababas encontrando el camino. A veces los autores iban "a pillar", poniéndote los resultados buenos detrás de decisiones que eran claramente anómalas.
Recuerdo haber aprendido tanto palabras como hechos y datos en estos libros. No nadar contra la corriente cuando quieres llegar a tierra, dónde colocarse cuando un avión va a despegar, un montón de cosas interesantes y un montón de historias vividas, decenas por cada libro, que convirtieron a las serie en una colección fractal, donde cada vez podías elegir un libro nuevo entre los que ya tenías.
Llegué hasta el tomo 54 y dejé de tener interés por la serie, pero la serie siguió hasta superar los 180 títulos. Tal vez mis hijos quieran seguir el camino que yo empecé. Si quieres que lo sigan, pasa a la página 7.
January 21, 2026
the only book I read about << choose your own adventure >> and I was fascinated. totally faithful to the concept of MYSTERY.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews