Seth C. Adams has written a modern and much more terrifying boy’s adventure novel

“If You Go Down to the Woods.” (Harper 360/HarperCollins Publishers, 286 pages)

Joey, just 13 years old, has moved from California to Arizona with his parents and 16-year-old year old sister.

Together with three other friends, Joey starts the Outsiders’ Club. This group of lovable misfits enjoy exploring the woods.

One day, they come across a burnt-out car. Inside the car, they find bundles of hundred dollar bills totaling millions in cash.

But in the car’s trunk they make a gruesome discovery — the remains of a murdered man.

This modern day treasure hunt takes a nightmarish turn when a hired killer, the Collector, comes to retrieve the cash.

Adams shows a talent for writing a story from the point of view of a young teenage boy in this updated story of lost pirate treasure. Compared to the sociopathic Mafia chieftains of today, the pirates of old look about as vicious as the Pirates of Penzance in this frightening tale of adventure.