Things start to go downhill with the last two books in the series, as though Willard Price were running out of enthusiasm and imagination. Hal and Roger have been sent to catch new animals from the Gir forest and the Himalayas in India, particularly tigers, the largest cats in the world. Despite the title, they do not spend a lot of time hunting tigers, nor is the reader taught much about them. This book may more aptly have been titled 'India Adventure.' The writing here seems a lot flatter than the others and the plot is extremely weak, jumping from one animal capture to the next. Most of the animals are caught in absurd, unexciting ways, such as being led back to camp by a rope, and tamed almost immediately. The antagonist is Vic Stone, an arrogant sponger who tries to steal their collection. Unlike all the other villains in the series, this character is redeemed near the end and becomes an ally.
Besides collecting the rare animals of the forest and mountains, the boys are also tasked with investigating stories of the legendary yeti. This involves listening to tall tales from the Sherpas, examining supposed yeti relics, and eventually debunking it all as hokum. Being a big cryptid enthusiast as a teenager, I was disappointed by their conclusions. On the other hand, even though many of his books stretch the imagination to breaking point, Price displays his reverence for scientific integrity and evidence based fact. He does, however, takes some great liberties by introducing species from china with the flimsy excuse that they could have made their way over to India through a Tibetan mountain pass. Locals are predictably portrayed as foolishly superstitious and greedy.
Rating: 2/5
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