The Dead Sea Treasure by Beverly J. Olsen is a young adventure novel about three best friends who encounter life-changing events. Set in both the US and Israel, the novel jumps back and forth sometimes making it hard to follow. The story starts in the United States and the author sets the scene with the teenagers’ day-to-day lives. The adventure shifts into high gear when they travel to Israel, are kidnapped and, as a result, discover a valuable artifact. The book has a religious tone throughout with the characters relating their own backgrounds of Christianity, Muslimism and Judaism in relation to their new experiences. This especially comes into play at the end because they have experienced a larger picture of the world and the supernatural.

The writing style is disjointed and readers may have a hard time using their imagination to visualize the story because so much information is given and there are a lot of characters to follow. The plot is solid, but the flow is constantly interrupted by inconsequential detail. It seems like this novel is geared to a younger audience because we experience their bus rides to and from school, dealing with bullies, a teenager's first date, first kiss and the interactions of giggling teenagers. Young readers may not have the patience to read through to the end of the novel because of the many different characters to follow and lack of character development in the main characters.

Although this is the author’s second book, her first was written for children and is called Vi’s Pie.