A great book for a lazy afternoon: a nod to Nancy that serves up a modern version of the classic teen detective heroine.
Francie is back for another outing in a second mystery set in Minnesota (Enchantment Lake, 2015).
Lots of people in town are aware that Francie played a major role in solving recent murders. Now, as she tries to fit in while starting her senior year at a new high school, she isn’t enjoying her oft–alluded-to Nancy Drew reputation. Her older brother, Theo, makes a surprise appearance; a few years older and not a little mysterious, he’s been absent more than he’s been around. When an archaeologist working on a dig nearby is murdered, Francie discovers clues hinting that Theo may be the killer. Befriended by two theater-kid classmates, Native American Raven and white Jay, Francie and the pair combine forces to solve this new crime, set against the backdrop of the play Antigone, in which Francie’s gotten the lead. (Although Raven’s tribal affiliation is not provided, she says her grandmother is Dakota and takes Francie ricing, a traditional activity among the Ojibwe.) There are plenty of red herrings but a few clues that might steer readers in the right direction. Francie engages in some breaking and entering and misleads the sheriff in her efforts to protect Theo, leaving this remarkably unsupervised teen open to danger and contributing to a rising level of suspense. The mostly white characters are only superficially sketched—the mystery’s the thing.
A great book for a lazy afternoon: a nod to Nancy that serves up a modern version of the classic teen detective heroine. (Mystery. 11-16)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5179-0219-3
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Univ. of Minnesota
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Clever as ever—if slow off the mark—and positively laden with tics, quirks, and puns.
When deadly minions of archvillain Ledroptha Curtain escape from prison, the talented young protégés of his twin brother, Nicholas Benedict, reunite for a new round of desperate ploys and ingenious trickery.
Stewart sets the reunion of cerebral Reynie Muldoon Perumal, hypercapable Kate Wetherall, shy scientific genius George “Sticky” Washington, and spectacularly sullen telepath Constance Contraire a few years after the previous episode, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma (2009). Providing relief from the quartet’s continual internecine squabbling and self-analysis, he trucks in Tai Li, a grubby, precociously verbal 5-year-old orphan who also happens to be telepathic. (Just to even the playing field a bit, the bad guys get a telepath too.) Series fans will know to be patient in wading through all the angst, arguments, and flurries of significant nose-tapping (occasionally in unison), for when the main action does at long last get under way—the five don’t even set out from Mr. Benedict’s mansion together until more than halfway through—the Society returns to Nomansan Island (get it?), the site of their first mission, for chases, narrow squeaks, hastily revised stratagems, and heroic exploits that culminate in a characteristically byzantine whirl of climactic twists, triumphs, and revelations. Except for brown-skinned George and olive-complected, presumably Asian-descended Tai, the central cast defaults to white; Reynie’s adoptive mother is South Asian.
Clever as ever—if slow off the mark—and positively laden with tics, quirks, and puns. (Fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-45264-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Megan Tingley/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
They may have (apparently) lost round one in trilogy opener Billionaire’s Curse (2010), but 13-year-old Gerald and his squabbling twin sidekicks Sam and Ruby aren't giving up. Here they get a taste of the luxury an estate worth £20 billion brings while jetting off to India in high style to claim a second magical artifact before (presumed) murderer and all-around bad guy Mason Green can reach it. Laying broad hints that All Is Not as It Seems—or, as several characters repeatedly whisper, “Nothing is certain.”—Newsome again crafts a lighter-than-air caper. It's all heavily dependent on contrived clues, blundering or oblivious adults, chaperones who consistently vanish just before attackers arrive, conveniently spotty communications, lurid visions and massive gems that evidently sit around for the taking. The pace never lets up, though, and along with learning a bit more about the 1,600-year-long secret that Gerald’s family has been charged with keeping, the young folk survive multiple kidnappings, escapes, chases and life-threatening mishaps. Inevitably they face off with Green again, here inside an ancient Indian temple prone to sudden massive floods. Fans of 39 Clues–style adventures will be swept along. (illustrations not seen) (Adventure. 11-14)
Pub Date: May 17, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-194492-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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