A superb mystery.
A middle schooler discovers her calling.
Elizabeth Webster is hoping to get through middle school with as little a reputation as possible, but that gets complicated when star athlete Henry Harrison approaches her one day in the middle of the crowded cafeteria for extra help with his math lessons. It’s quickly revealed that Henry doesn’t need Elizabeth for math but rather to investigate a ghost that’s appeared in Henry’s house and is asking for Elizabeth by name. As Elizabeth and Henry work to get to the bottom of things, Elizabeth discovers secrets in her own past involving a long-lost grandfather, demons, spirits, an unsolved murder, and a profession that Elizabeth might just be destined for. Former federal prosecutor Lashner brings his legal expertise to the tale, crafting a spooky legal thriller for middle-grade readers that is just technical enough to feel grounded in reality and just unearthly enough to keep readers on their toes. This blend of ghostly apparitions and legal exposition should absolutely not work—but yet it does, engaging readers in a compelling mystery and a world that functions seamlessly. Twists and turns arise, but narrator Elizabeth’s spunky attitude and earnestness provide an emotional spine that couples with the novel’s mystery, dovetailing together at the right moment, making for a very engaging read. Elizabeth presents white; her best friend, Natalie, is Latinx; and Henry is black.
A superb mystery. (Mystery. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-04128-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Dedicated spy-thriller and sci-fi fans would probably be able to fill in the blanks, but it’s not worth the effort.
A disappointing second outing finds the titular time-traveling secret agent darting his way through a tangle of nefarious schemes so messy and incoherent that readers have no chance of following him.
A researcher (seemingly) kidnapped in 1973 for nebulous reasons…a mysterious meteoric metal mined in Tanzania in the 1920s and stolen by Nazis for never-explained purposes in 1942…a short hitchhike with the historical French “Black Cruise” through the Iringa rain forest in 1925…a discovery in conveniently untouched former Nazi offices in 1950 Denmark…a car chase and a double ambush in New Mexico….Switching decade and locale with a page turn or, sometimes, just between one panel and the next, Jakobsen pitches his ever-natty hero into and, with equal ease, out of one heavily contrived, tenuously related situation after another. Muddying the waters further, he also folds in supporting characters who either look too much alike to keep straight or are unrecognizable (with the exception of Einstein) caricatures of a suddenly-revealed “League of Extraordinary Scientists.”
Dedicated spy-thriller and sci-fi fans would probably be able to fill in the blanks, but it’s not worth the effort. (historical notes on rain forests, Nazi plunder and other related topics, with period images, appended) (Graphic science fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8225-9421-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
A grave tale indeed, if not entirely serious. (Supernatural adventure. 10-13)
Blood both spills and tells in a small Connecticut town when 13 bad-seed specters from the same family escape from their crypt one Halloween.
They range from an 18th-century highwayman to a murderous Capone-era gangster dubbed “Crazy Izzy” and were all confined in the same tomb years ago thanks to spells cast by Zack Jennings’ three great-aunts. Eleven-year-old Zack’s inherited ability to see ghosts may be a mixed blessing at best, but it comes in handy when the 13 spectral Icklebys break out, seize control of their nerdy but increasingly willing descendant Norman and embark on a vengeful crime spree. Fortunately, most of the Icklebys turn out to be easily sidetracked, and equally fortunately Zack has allies on both sides of the dirt (as the author puts it), from the aforementioned great-aunts (weird sisters indeed, flying in from their Florida retirement home with a full stock of witchly goods and exorcism chants) to a headless cat ghost. As in Zack’s three previous Haunted Mystery outings (The Smoky Corridor, 2010, etc.), the pace never flags. Through flurries of ultra-short chapters, events spiral to a suspenseful climax, and the mix of corpses and comedy add up to a faintly macabre tone that isn’t dispelled even by the end’s just deserts and happy outcomes.
A grave tale indeed, if not entirely serious. (Supernatural adventure. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-86900-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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