A Ballantyne with all the usual suspects: a retired sea captain, a dear old mother figure, an ailing middle-aged dowager, a wayward nephew, a sweet niece, a street gamin, a mad professor and an expert or two. And one of them is an impostor. Their lives interlace and they all are found at a vacation spot in Switzerland where we are treated to all the knowledge of the time that is pertinent to glaciers. Silly, but I love this stuff. It reminds me of my Grandfather and all the books he had in his home that I could explore as I was growing up. ( )