A thinly disguised pastiche with a notably hurried wrap-up.
A summer campout near a supposedly haunted house turns deadly for a teenage amateur sleuth and her friends in the latest entry in the Dinswood Chronicles series.
Nancy Drew fans will feel right at home in this fourth stand-alone episode, as rising Dinswood Academy junior Emma Higsby, joined by classmates Doug Harwood, Sebastian Conners, and Martha Merriweather (who’s also Emma’s best friend), hear rumors of mysterious doings near a creepy, isolated house. In a strung-out caper hung about with handy coincidences—as well as standard-issue elements from a cryptic message and a hidden tunnel to armed kidnappers and arson—the young sleuths uncover evidence of chicanery in high places. Meanwhile, even as they’re being chased and threatened, previously doused flames of passion flare up again between Emma and Doug. Along with including an improbable twist regarding a new friend who’s an adoptee, the author lets her adolescent characters escape any serious consequences for housebreaking and other mischief as they head, in a delayed but sudden rush, toward a tidy resolution. Alexander shoehorns in an arrest and confession, while never giving the villain even a brief walk-on role and leaving unresolved apparently contradictory revelations about the FBI’s role in all of this. Characters read white.
A thinly disguised pastiche with a notably hurried wrap-up. (Mystery. 12-14)Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9781643973791
Page Count: 210
Publisher: BHC Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
This is a funny book, chock full of action, slapstick, puns and eccentrics. Fans of the first two will eat it up.
This mystery/adventure, third in the series, begins in Vancouver, Canada, then takes a side trip to Paris, leaving a trail of amusement and mayhem.
On his 15th birthday, Neil Flambé is re-opening his restaurant, Chez Flambé, when a curse that has beset generations of Flambés sets in, initiating mayhem. This action-packed story includes poisoning, explosions, booby-trapped kitchen equipment and other unpleasant events aimed at ruining Neil’s reputation. Mysterious happenings include the appearance of an old family cookbook, a vanquished adversary demanding a second cooking duel and the discovery that a neighboring restaurant is occupied only by a motion sensor and hundreds of rats. Attempting to discover the origin of the sabotage and solve multiple mysteries, Neil is joined by his cousin, friends and well-meaning colleagues who are developed just enough to propel the story forward but whose names are often hilarious. Although this book can stand on its own, readers are advised to read the series in order.
This is a funny book, chock full of action, slapstick, puns and eccentrics. Fans of the first two will eat it up. (Mystery. 12-14)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4286-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
For readers who like (or at least don’t mind) continual authorial asides, a sturdy middle volume.
Still struggling to keep up with his wizardly fellow campers, Clay finally discovers his particular talent when the arrival of a large cruise ship touches off a round of assaults and rescues on remote Price Island.
It seems there’s a secret sleeping at the heart of the island’s all-too-active volcano, and Brett Perry, genially vicious owner of the luxury liner Imperial Conquest, has come to seize it for the nefarious Midnight Sun society. Against his horde of well-armed thugs, it would seem that his chubby 12-year-old son, Brett Jr.—plus Clay, airy kleptomaniac Leira (spell it backward), and other residents of Earth Ranch—stands no chance of mounting any effective resistance. But when there is magic in the air and also a new ally who has the young folk envisioning a “Titanic meets Godzilla” scenario, anything becomes possible. More intrusive than ever, “Bosch” not only lays in fussy digressions and many wordy footnotes, he even dedicates the story to himself (with his real name) and inserts himself directly as a character from his earlier Secret series. Along with making his protagonist look a lot ridiculous and, by the end, a little bit heroic, the author strews the tale with fart jokes and gross goo, oblique references to Harry Potter (“expel-your-anus!”), and other crowd-pleasing elements.
For readers who like (or at least don’t mind) continual authorial asides, a sturdy middle volume. (“backmatter”; map and illustrations, not seen) (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-32042-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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