The Liahona Legacies Series

reviewed by Robert Pritchett

Tina Monson started professional writing career with her The Liahona Legacies series; Moroni’s Treasure, A Traitor in our Midst and Tunnels of Zarahemla. There  should be a Volume 4.

She begins with pubescent and prepubescent team members who have an elaborate treehouse as a clubhouse for The Timber Creek Titans baseball team members. A couple of bad guys escape from prison, enter a house in town and hide out in the attic. The kids go there to clean up the attic and in the process discover an ancient map apparently created by Moroni from the Book of Mormon, while waiting for storms to clear so they can go back to compete in a Baseball Tournament. Hero, Bubba, Runt, Tater, Stick, Butch, Bean KP and Red get permission to go find clues to the treasure, work their way through reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics with the assistance of a librarian (Cheri), who really is an expert on such things. Oh , and don’t forget Squeaks, Hero’s kid sister,  who knows a few things the others don’t.

What’s fun is that Cheri is able to translate such that the clues rhyme.  Hey, it’s fiction, okay? Either that or she is really, really good. Anyhow the clues take us through the Book of Mormon scriptures that have key words. At the end of Volume 1, the bad guys who have been following them to capture the treasure are captured themselves after being trick by the kids, and the kids have keys that have unlocked a few places on this treasure hunt to where they find the Liahona. 

Hero, Bubba, Bean and KP get sucked back into the past and end up somewhere in the Book of Mormon times.

Volume 2 has them near a Lamanite warrior camp with Bean getting captured and the others trying to get her back without getting killed. They discover they need to help adjust history so it matches what is recorded in the Book of Mormon and somehow are able to communicate back to the present via walkie-talkie. They have 7 “Days of the Lord” to get things straightened out or they don’t come back.  In Volume 2 they do get things back to normal by discovering who is tipping off the Lamanites who want to destroy the Nephite cities and meet up wth the Prophet Alma before poofing back to the present. Next,  Runt, Stick, Read and Bear touch the Liahona and get sucked into the past.

In Volume 3, the boys sneak into the City of Zarahemla via the waterways and discover that the Gadiantons have control of he city and are planning on killing the Lamanite prophet before he can fulfill his mission, which is to call the city to repentance. They manage to do so with the help of a local named Tulio, before their time limit is met. When they manage to get back to the present, Bubba’s mom, Squeaks, Tater and Butch poof into the past, so expect a Volume 4.

These books are a fun read and do a great job in making the Book of Mormon “come alive”.