Who Could That Be at This Hour?

All the Wrong Questions

Children - Preteen
272 Pages
Reviewed on 11/11/2012
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Karen Pirnot for Readers' Favorite

Lemony Snicket has trained in a very special place to be a very special person. In "Who Could That Be at This Hour" by Lemony Snicket, Snicket has chosen a bottom-of-the-line mentor so that he can pretty much do his own investigative thing. In order to be a good investigator, you must of course be able to ask appropriate questions. However, Lemony Snicket consistently asks the wrong questions, leaving it next to impossible that he will effectively and efficiently solve the mystery of the missing Bombinating Beast, a statue that is desired by many, but highly elusive to most. The setting for this mystery is in a seaside town that has been drained of the sea, leaving a seaweed forest and a slowly disappearing ink industry.

There are a lot of hidden messages in this book and I have my doubts whether younger readers will be able to tease them out. At times, the clues are confusing and without highly abstract abilities, the child may not follow what has been teased out by Lemony so that his mystery can be solved. The character himself is absolutely loveable in his honesty about himself. The other main characters are equally appealing in their evil and their flaws. At times, the reader is asking whether evil or stupidity is the major flaw in human nature. All in all, those in middle school will probably keep the pages turning while grade school readers will be asking lots of questions.