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
Clay is Everykid enough (“almost handsome, in a dried-snot-on-his-sleeve sort of way”) to keep readers hanging around to see...
Very little is as it seems at a survival camp for “troubled” teens in this trilogy opener.
Still deeply upset nearly two years after the disappearance of his stage-magician older brother, Clay writes “Magic sucks!” in a notebook after turning in a blank paper on Shakespeare’s Tempest. He’s astounded to find the sentiment painted on a wall at school the next day—with his signature. The resultant fallout lands him on a remote Pacific island, where he encounters peers named Leira (spell it backward) and Mira, a grotesque puppet dubbed “Caliban” and a llama with a sign on its neck reading “Hola. Cómo se llama? Yo me llamo Como C. Llama.” He also discovers not one but two libraries of rare books—one stocked with oddly behaving grimoires. After climbing a live volcano and sliding back down on a board, he discovers (as he had been suspecting for some time) that it’s all been a setup—further developments to come. “Bosch,” a confirmed Lemony Snicket bandwagoneer, repeatedly interrupts with authorial rants, pleas and footnotes. The Shakespearean parallels aren’t particularly integral to the plot, and the twists, Como’s sign apart, are more inscrutable than clever. The book comes complete with multiple appendices and Ford’s illustrations (not seen for review).
Clay is Everykid enough (“almost handsome, in a dried-snot-on-his-sleeve sort of way”) to keep readers hanging around to see what happens to him next. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-316-32038-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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