Behind the Curtain: An Echo Falls Mystery -- Peter Abrahams

I was a huge fan of the first Echo Falls mystery.  Ingrid was super-bright and somewhat sassy, yet still acted like a thirteen-year-old girl, I liked the other characters, the mystery was a decent one* and I really appreciated the fact that the mystery didn't take over the book -- Ingrid had to deal with it on top of everything else in her life**. 

So as far as I was concerned, Behind the Curtain had a lot to live up to.

It was... okay.

My main problem is this: I feel that Ingrid's been dumbed down.  In the first book, I thought it was quite clear that Ingrid both knew the side effects of steroids and that her brother was using them.  In this book, her health class does a unit on steroids, and ONLY THEN does she put two and two together about her brother's recent violent tendencies and acne outbreaks.  While I realize that Abrahams needed to get the information in there -- not everyone reading the book would know that stuff, and not everyone reading would have read the first book -- there HAD to have been another way.  Erasing Ingrid's memory was extremely uncool.

Of course, I'm still definitely planning on picking up the next book in the series.  This time around, I was actually reminded a bit of Veronica Mars, what with the issues with her father's job and her grandfather's land and the sketchy corporate doings in the background. 

Recommended to fans of the first book.  If you haven't read the first book, but you like Sammy Keyes and Kiki Strike and other smartypants girls and totally love the thought of a Sherlock-Holmes-obsessed aspiring actress/soccer player/sleuth who has a budding romance with the police chief's son, then what are you waiting for?  Start the series, but from the beginning.

Oh, and if you end up picking this one up?  Skip the jacket flap copy -- it gives way too much of the storyline away.

*Even though I had the Baddie pegged from Appearance One.  Actually, I did this time, too.

**It's nice to occasionally read an adventure story in which the main character:

A) isn't an orphan
B) doesn't have parents who suddenly take off for Japan and just leave them at home to hold down the fort***
C) doesn't have parents who get kidnapped
D) doesn't have eeeevil parents

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I'm also sure that you get my point.

***I'm talking to YOU, Beverly Hills, 90210.  Lamest get-rid-of ever.

Comments

[Gail]

What a coincidence you should review this book today. I was going to look for it at the library this afternoon but got distracted by all the other pretty things there.

I actually liked the first Echo Falls Mystery better than Kiki Strike. It seemed like a classic contemporary mystery novel, but for kids. There was stuff that was a little predictable for an adult reader, but the writing was solid and the main character was good. I was also drawn in because the setting is clearly near me.

[Leila]

I can see liking it better than Kiki -- Kiki and the Irregulars are awesome and super-fun (and I want to join them!), but I do think that Ingrid & Co. have more depth. Anyway, Book Two is worth reading, but I really do think it's a step down from Book One.

Looking forward to the third book regardless!

[Jen Robinson]

I thought the first one was better, too. I thought that the second was was less hard-edged, more "for kids", and thus a lesser book. But, like you, I'll be back for Volume 3.