Review of Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense 0

“Who Could That Be at This Hour?”

All the Wrong Questions, Book 1

by Lemony Snicket
read by Liam Aiken

Hachette Audio, 2012. 4 hours on 4 CDs.

I began listening to this new series by Lemony Snicket and was captivated. It’s got all of his clever humor without the sad plight of persecuted orphans that turned me off from A Series of Unfortunate Events.

We do have a 13-year-old kid – the young Lemony Snicket – setting off on his apprenticeship for a mysterious organization. His chaperone takes him to Stained-by-the-Sea, and they are told to return a mysterious statue to its rightful owner. However, Snicket quickly realizes the statue is already in the hands of its rightful owner. His chaperone doesn’t believe him, and they begin a crazy adventure.

The book is full of delightful, understated details. Stained-by-the-Sea, for example, is no longer by the sea, but there is a sinister forest of seaweed where sea used to be. The reader uses a wonderful matter-of-fact voice, eminently suitable for crime noir.

I love Lemony Snicket’s trademark, “which here means…”, always used in clever and funny ways. And the similes he uses are always bizarre, but apt. I wish I could give examples, but that’s a problem with an audiobook.

Lemony Snicket freely tells us that he was asking the wrong questions, and tells us what the right question would have been. But he doesn’t tell us what the answer would have been to the right question. That is only revealed with time.

Some pieces of the mystery are revealed in this book, but it’s definitely the beginning of something bigger. There are reportedly going to be four Wrong Questions. And I have already decided I’m going to be sure to listen to all of them.

LemonySnicketLibrary.com
HachetteAudio.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/who_could_that_be.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Secret of Terror Castle, by Robert Arthur

Adventure, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Old Favorites 0

Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in

The Secret of Terror Castle

by Robert Arthur

Random House, New York, 1964. 179 pages.

This isn’t going to be a review so much as an appreciation.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a co-worker about series mysteries. We both had read the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew, but I never read the Hardy Boys. I said that the really good series was The Three Investigators, and he said he agreed — he hadn’t brought them up because most people haven’t heard of them. So then we got to talking about Jupiter Jones and all the cool things about the Three Investigators. I said that my brother had all of them, but he didn’t let anyone else read them, so I had to borrow them from my friend Georgette.

Well, the library has recently gotten a new system for ordering Interlibrary Loans, and administration had asked staff to try it out by making some requests. So my co-worker decided to request the first three Three Investigators mysteries. Naturally, I asked if I could read them after him. When he said there might not be enough time in the loan, I said it would be funny if he behaved exactly like my brother. Anyway, when the first book did come in, he finished it well ahead of the due date, and I got to read it, too.

We’re both trying to figure out what it is about The Three Investigators that made them so completely cool. The writing is not stellar, though there is a nice habit of closing chapters on a cliff-hanger (or rock slide). But you’ve got to love a group of kids independently traveling around in a gold-plated Rolls-Royce (which Jupiter won the use of) with an English chauffeur. Jupiter is super smart and outsmarts adults routinely. Their headquarters is fantastic — an old mobile home hidden in a junkyard, completely surrounded by trash. The entrances are all secret, and involve things like crawling through a tunnel.

Yes, the books are dated. I laughed when the boys discovered the “mobile telephone” in the Rolls-Royce. “One pushes the button and gives the desired number to the operator.” They also make their own business cards by fixing an old printing press that came into the junk yard. And the book isn’t at all politically correct. Various ethnic groups are represented stereotypically. And there are no girls in the book whatsoever. (But it’s true, I loved the books anyway.)

I hadn’t remembered that Bob Andrews — at 13 or 14 years old — worked in a library. This paragraph on the very first page made me laugh aloud:

“How was the library?” [his mother] asked.

“It was okay,” Bob told her. After all, there was never any excitement at the library.

Later on, “Bob had been swamped with work at the library, re-cataloguing all the books. One other helper was out sick, so Bob had been working days and evenings too.” My goodness, such responsibility to give a kid!

I like some of the exclamations Pete comes up with: Gleeps! Whiskers! Golly!

I’m not crazy about Skinny Norris, the obligatory bully of the books. Solving mysteries wasn’t enough — there has to be a rival gang, taunting them.

But overall, this book holds up. You’ve got a spooky setting and clever kids, acting on their own, who get into danger and solve the mystery. Rereading it made me feel like I was twelve years old again.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/terror_castle.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book borrowed via Interlibrary Loan.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of All the Truth That’s in Me, by Julie Berry

Historical, Mystery, Romance, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

All the Truth That’s in Me

by Julie Berry

Viking, 2013. 288 pages.
Starred Review

I read this book simply because it’s in School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books, which commences March 10. I’m not sure what I expected, since I hadn’t heard much about it, but I was blown away and kept reading well into the night.

This is a rare book that’s written in second person voice, addressed to “you.” But the speaker is not addressing the reader. It soon becomes clear that she’s addressing the young man she loves.

Here’s how the book begins, with the heading “Before”:

We came here by ship, you and I.

I was a baby on my mother’s knee, and you were a lisping, curly-headed boy playing at your mother’s feet all through that weary voyage.

Watching us, our mothers got on so well together that our fathers chose adjacent farm plots a mile from town, on the western fringe of a Roswell Station that was much smaller then.

I remember my mother telling tales of the trip when I was young. Now she never speaks of it at all.

She said I spent the whole trip wide-eyed, watching you.

She still watches him. She remembers when he smiled at her, gave her posies. But something terrible happened, and now the whole village barely notices she is there.

We get bits of what happened, all along the way. We find out why she doesn’t speak. She was gone for two years. When she came back, she was out of her head, left for dead, with half her tongue cut out.

Then ships are sighted off the shore, coming toward the town. The Homelanders are bringing war to them, wanting their fertile farms. All the men of the town must fight, even though their arsenal was destroyed, even though they are doomed.

But Judith knows where to find help – only she must confront her own nightmares.

And after she does so, everything changes.

This book is marvelously constructed, revealing bits of the past at a natural pace, as it comes up in the present, finally with mysteries solved at the very end. I find myself wanting to read it all over again, knowing now how it all fits together.

And ultimately, it’s a love story. And a story of healing. And a story of courage. And a story of a wounded girl finding her voice.

julieberrybooks.com
penguin.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/all_the_truth_thats_in_me.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon, by Alexander McCall Smith

Contemporary, Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review 0

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon

by Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon Books, New York, 2013. 242 pages.
Starred Review

It’s probably silly for me to continue to review these books, since they are most fun read in order, as you get to know the characters over time. And those who have read this far, like me, will certainly want to continue, so all I really need to tell you is that another book is out.

I like it when the books include satisfying puzzles for Mma Ramotswe to solve, and this one does. As well, Mma Makutsi is expecting a baby! But Phuti’s troublesome aunt is determined to come stay with them and keep people away after the baby is born. And, Surprise! Charlie, of all people, is quite taken with the baby.

Mostly, I enjoy these books because of the pleasant time it gives me with wonderful people. As another title proclaimed, reading these books is being in the company of cheerful ladies.

I always like to include a quotation that shows Mma Ramotswe’s practical, peaceful, and matter-of-fact approach to life. Here’s one that made me smile:

In her experience, those who took the husbands or wives of others could rewrite history – not always, but often – and the marriage they had broken up would be portrayed as being in much worse condition than it really was.

pantheonbooks.com
alexandermccallsmith.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/minor_adjustment_beauty_salon.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of A Christmas Hope, by Anne Perry

Christmas, Fiction Review, Mystery 0

A Christmas Hope

by Anne Perry

Ballantine Books, New York, 2013. 197 pages.

I do love Anne Perry’s Christmas mysteries. I caught the latest a few days after Christmas, but still in time for a good holiday adventure. A Christmas Hope is set in the same world as her William Monk series (which I haven’t gotten around to reading yet), featuring a woman who works at the clinic with Mrs. Monk.

This woman, Claudine Burroughs, is at a Christmas party, trying to keep up appearances with her husband and make the right contacts. Bored with the party, she goes out to the terrace and is surprised to meet Dai Tregarron, a Welsh poet. Here is how he introduces himself:

“I would say ‘at your service,’ but I do little of use. Poet, philosopher, and deep drinker of life . . . and of a good deal of fine whiskey, when I can find it. And I should add, a lover of beauty, whether it be in a note of music, a sunset spilling its blood across the sky, or a beautiful woman. I am regarded as something of a blasphemer by society, and they enjoy the frisson of horror they indulge in when mentioning my name. Of course, I disagree, violently. To me, the one true blasphemy is ingratitude, calling God’s great, rich world a thing of no value. It is of infinite value, so precious it breaks your heart, so fleeting that eternity is merely a beginning.”

Claudine doesn’t prolong the conversation and goes back inside and does her duty at the party. But then the party is interrupted by a young man with blood on his clothes. He comes in from the terrace, saying that Tregarron attacked a young woman and the young man and his two friends tried to stop him.

The young woman dies, and the police are looking for Tregarron. Claudine can’t quite bring herself to believe that the gentlemanly poet would be so violent. But what business does she have interfering in such a mystery?

I like all the variation in Anne Perry’s Christmas mysteries. No two are quite the same, but they all present a good puzzle, and people who want to do the right thing. They all have an uplifting theme, perfect for Christmas.

anneperry.co.uk
ballantinebooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/christmas_hope.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of A Christmas Garland, by Anne Perry

Christmas, Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery 0

A Christmas Garland

by Anne Perry

Ballantine Books, New York, 2012. 194 pages.

There’s nothing like a nice murder mystery for Christmas! Reading Anne Perry’s Christmas mystery has gotten be a tradition with me. I was sorry to miss last year’s, since I was judging the Cybils Awards. This year, I’m a second-round judge, so I was able to make up for lost time and read last year’s.

This one is historical, which Anne Perry does so well. We’re with British soldiers in India in 1857, during a large mutiny, shortly before Christmas. Lieutenant Victor Narraway has just arrived in Cawnpore, and he’s given an assignment:

Latimer smiled bleakly. There was no light in his face, no warmth of approval. “You will be aware of the recent escape of the prisoner Dhuleep Singh,” he went on. “And that his guard, Chuttur Singh, was hacked to death in the course of Dhuleep’s escape?”

Narraway’s mouth was dry. Of course he knew it. Everyone in the Cawnpore station knew it.

“Yes, sir,” he said obediently, forcing the words out.

“It has been investigated,” Latimer’s jaw was tight, and a small muscle jumped in his temple. “We know Dhuleep Singh had privileged information regarding troop movements, specifically regarding the recent patrol that was massacred. We also know the man could not have escaped without assistance.” His voice was growing quieter, as if he found the words more and more difficult to say. He cleared his throat with an effort. “Our inquiries have excluded every possibility except that he was helped by Corporal John Tallis, the medical orderly.” He met Narraway’s eyes. “We will try him the day after tomorrow. I require you to speak in his defense.”

Everyone is sure Tallis is guilty. As the Colonel said, the matter was investigated. But they want to uphold the rule of law and be sure he gets a fair trial. So Narraway is to defend him. A daunting task for Narraway, and one which he can’t win, and which no one wants him to win.

When he talks with Tallis, the man claims he is innocent. He was sorting medical supplies and no one saw him, but he did not kill the guard. Narraway likes him and wants to help, but it certainly looks like he will hang.

Out of this situation, Anne Perry creates a riveting mystery which ends with nice warm Christmasy feelings. Perfect for the season.

AnnePerry.net
ballantinebooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/christmas_garland.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Mystery of Meerkat Hill, by Alexander McCall Smith

Audiobooks, Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Mystery 0

The Mystery of Meerkat Hill
A Precious Ramotswe Mystery for Young Readers

by Alexander McCall Smith
read by Adjoa Andoh

Listening Library, 2013. 1 hour on 1 CD.

The Mystery of Meerkat Hill is a second mystery about the heroine of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency when she was a little girl. The book form is a short chapter book with illustrations, perfect for kids ready to start on chapter books. The audio form has rich African accents, and is a delight to listen to.

Precious already has her trademark matter-of-fact approach to life. In this story, she makes some new friends who have a meerkat as a pet. Later, the friends lose their cow. Precious helps them track the cow and figures out a clever way to show it is theirs.

You’ve got a mystery, lots of animals, and a story set among kids living in another country. I’m excited to be able to offer this to kids, and the CD makes a wonderful family listening experience as well.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/meerkat_hill.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Speaking From Among the Bones, by Alan Bradley

Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

Speaking From Among the Bones

by Alan Bradley

Delacorte Press, New York, 2013. 378 pages.
Starred Review

Hooray! Another installment in the detective novels about Flavia de Luce, eleven-year-old genius and poison aficionado.

In this book, the locals are celebrating the quincentennial of the death of Saint Tancred by opening his tomb. Along the way, they find a dead body that is not five hundred years old, but rather that of their missing organist. Naturally, Flavia ends up gathering the clues to find the murderer.

I enjoyed this book immensely. There’s another clever puzzle for Flavia to solve while bicycling around the neighborhood. This time, she and her sisters weren’t nearly as mean to each other, and I enjoyed the respite. It looks like their beloved Buckshaw will have to be sold, which pulled them together. The book did end with a bombshell regarding their family, which stresses that these books should be read in order. Those who have read so far will be delighted as I with the latest installment.

Here are a few fun sections:

Ordinarily, anyone who made such a remark to my face would go to the top of my short list for strychnine. A few grains in the victim’s lunch pail — probably mixed with the mustard in his Spam sandwich, which would neatly hide both the taste and the texture . . .

It wasn’t until I was nearly home — not, in fact, until I was sweeping past the great stone griffins that guarded the Mulford Gates — that I realized I had overlooked two very important things. The first was that business of the bat, and how it had managed to get into the church. The second was this: If the tomb in the crypt was occupied by the remains of Mr. Collicutt, where on earth, then, were the bones of Saint Tancred?

Whenever I’m a little blue I think about cyanide, whose color so perfectly reflects my mood. It is pleasant to think that the manioc plant, which grows in Brazil, contains enormous quantities of the stuff in its thirty-pound roots, all of which, unfortunately, is washed away before the residue is used to make our daily tapioca.

I knew that the instant life ends, the human body begins to consume itself in a most efficient manner. Our own bacteria transform us with remarkable swiftness into gas bags containing methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and mercaptan, to name just a few. Although I had for some time been making notes toward a future work to be called De Luce on Decomposition, I had not had until that moment any real, so to speak, firsthand experience.

There you have it: An old-fashioned cozy mystery with a precocious and delightfully bloodthirsty sleuth in postwar England. Tremendous fun!

flaviadeluce.com
bantamdell.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/speaking_from_among_the_bones.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Horten’s Incredible Illusions, by Lissa Evans

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Fantasy, Mystery 0

Horten’s Incredible Illusions

Magic, Mystery & Another Very Strange Adventure

by Lissa Evans

Sterling Children’s Books, New York, 2012. Originally published in Great Britain in 2012 as Big Change for Stuart.

Horten’s Incredible Illusions is a follow-up to Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms, and you should definitely read the first book first. I can say with confidence that if you liked the first book, you will also enjoy the second.

In the second book, Stuart Horten has found his uncle’s magic tricks, but now he must figure out a puzzle that involves an adventure with each piece of magical equipment. The puzzle leads to his uncle’s will, which he needs to prove the tricks belong to him.

The puzzle format works well, and this is simply a fun adventure tale for kids. Here’s a sample from when Stuart and April first get to look over the tricks:

They looked at each other. “Once you start using magic, it’s very hard to stop,” quoted April, her voice breathy. “It’s another puzzle, isn’t it? Another adventure?”

Stuart closed his hand over the star, and felt the six prongs dig into his skin. His heart was suddenly thumping; he felt both excited and slightly frightened, and he knew from April’s expression that she felt the same. The hunt for Great-Uncle Tony’s workshop had been a wild and exciting chase, sprinkled with danger and magic, and now another quest was beckoning. But for what? What was the prize this time?

He felt his hand tingle, and he knew that the object he was holding was so full of magic that over fifty years it had bleached the paper it was wrapped in; he could feel its power.

sterlingpublishing.com/kids

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/hortens_incredible_illusions.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms, by Lissa Evans

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Fantasy, Mystery 0

Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms

Magic, Mystery & a Very Strange Adventure

by Lissa Evans

Sterling Children’s Books, 2012. 270 pages.

Here’s a truly fun story with a magical twist on being the new kid in town. Stuart Horten — S. Horten — Always called “Shorten” — is very short. His parents are extremely clever, but not very sensible, and they move to a new town right at the start of the summer, so Stuart doesn’t have any chance to make new friends. They move to Beeton, the town where Stuart’s father grew up, and in town are the ruins of the old factory where Stuart’s great-uncle Tony manufactured magic tricks — before he disappeared.

Stuart turns up a puzzle from Great-Uncle Tony that leads to a mystery that leads him all over town. Tony was a fine magician, and Stuart can’t help but wonder what really happened when he disappeared.

The big strength of this book is the quirky characters: Stuart’s father, who always uses big words; the identical triplet girls next door who see themselves as investigative journalists; and the people in the town whom Stuart meets along the way. The puzzle is engaging and keeps you going.

Now, I wasn’t quite believing in the ending, or that the puzzle would have survived the passage of years as well as it did. But I think I’m probably a more difficult audience on that front than most kids, and the story-telling itself was outstanding. The book reminded me of my beloved Edward Eager books — ordinary kids spending a summer tinged with magic.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/hortens_miraculous_mechanisms.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!