HUNTING THE STRANGE

A fresh round of cryptic hints and clues send Mullory Prudence and her squad of reluctant allies from Coney Island to a consultation with the sinister Skeleton Singer.

Mullory’s helpless struggles to control her newly acquired magical abilities and her simmering relationship with hot, brooding revenant boyfriend, Lyric Stoutmire, add juicy subplots to this sequel to Mystery Royale (2025). But it’s following the trail laid down by her missing mom and others from one ciphered, seemingly random assortment of numbers, letters, words, or items to the next that provides nearly all the action. Cavalancia works from the stated premise that good clues are only meaningful to those to whom they are left, and most are totally inscrutable to everyone except Mullory. This may give her many chances to be brilliant and intuitive—but readers who like the sorts of posers they can solve along with the protagonist can only stand by as she miraculously works them out (with occasional help from her fellow sleuths) and then follow along to some divertingly oddball locale or encounter where the next is discovered. It’s a long haul to a climax that seems over practically before it begins. Still, amid eventual reunions and well-earned demises, enough remains unresolved to fuel at least another sequel. The central cast reads white.

A long hunt but with plenty of strange to find along the way.