Book Review: Who Could That Be at this Hour? ( All The Wrong Questions 1)- Lemony Snicket ( aka Daniel Handler)

There was a town, there was a girl, and there was a theft.

And so begins Who Could That At This Hour?, the first of four books in Lemony Snicket ( real name Daniel Handler)'s new series All the Wrong Questions ( or ATWQ).  Meant to be a prequel series to A Series of Unfortunate Events ( ASOUE), the first book introduces to a twelve and a half year-old Snicket, who is recruited by a mysterious detective agency to serve as an apprentice to S. Theodora Markson. The two go a town called Stain’d-by-the-Sea (  which ironically has no sea anymore, having been drained a long time ago)  and are hired by Mrs Murphy Sallis to find a black and creepy statue known as the Bombinating Beast. But young Lemony learns that is a mystery of many clues and no solutions.

I am bombinating ( which means buzzing) with happiness. I loved everything, even the beastie ( which we are making Bombinating Beast bookmarks in our upcoming creepy the funny book program next Thursday at 4 pm) and am so looking forward to the rest of the series. ( Book two comes out later this year, the other two to be announced.) It is a hilarous and mysterious read full of interesting characters, such as Moxie Mallahan, the budding journalist who wants to know the full story, and Pip and Squeak, two little kids who are subbing for their dad's taxi job ( one is stting on books to reach the steering wheel, the other is down below operating the brakes.) I love Dashiell Qwerty, the strange  but helpful sub-librarian ( the town cannot afford a full-time librarian). There's also the usual Snicketism of defining large words youngters may not understand and reference-dropping to literature and whatnot that encourages one to look up what it is.( Example: The last name of the sub-librarian is a reference to the top left row of the keyboard. Raise your hand if you are looking at your computer keyboard right now to see if I am correct.) I also love that the blue, grey,and white illustrations of  artist Seth, are appropriate and add to the retro-ness of the mystery.

I do have one small complaint about how it ends. I'm not really a fan of cliffhangers ( and it's kind of a eh end), and Snicket leaves a lot of questions unaswered. But I'm going to forgive him because this is the first book and obviously not everything is going to be answered in the first book. Still, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of the books will be good, and perhaps not only answer the questions of Hour but also finally  answered questions left unanswered seven years ago from ASOUE. ( I'm betting the beastie, who everyone is also saying may/ maynot be the Great Unknown, ends up in ... the suguar bowl. But I could... be wrong.)

Who Could That Be at this Hour? ( All The Wrong Questions 1)- Lemony Snicket ( aka Daniel Handler)
Ages:9-11
Lexile: 850
**** 1/2 ( 4 and a half stars)