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Summary
Summary
When her best friend, Meat, narrowly escapes a hired gunman's bullet, Herculeah Jones has another mystery on her hands. Just as she begins to piece together the clues, she's kidnapped and taken to Death's Door, a deserted bookstore that may be too aptly named. Because somewhere in the dark, stalking Herculeah, is the assassin -- and this time, he's determined not to miss.
Author Notes
Betsy Cromer Byars was born in1928. She graduated from Queens College in Charlotte, North Carolina. While she was in graduate school, she began writing articles for The Saturday Evening Post and Look.
Byars writes novels for young people. She is an expert at tapping in to the pain of adolescence, using bits of her own experience to flavor her characters. She is author of more than 60 books and has won numerous awards. Her book about a 14-year-old girl and her mentally retarded brother, The Summer of the Swans (1970), won the Newberry Award as the most distinguished contribution to children's literature that year. Other books include The 18th Emergency (1973), The TV Kid (1976), and After the Goat Man (1995).
Betsy Byars died on February 26,2020 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-7-Move over Nancy Drew, Herculeah Jones has arrived! Strong and agile, she lives up to her name and seems capable of solving any case that comes her way; with a private investigator mother and a police detective father, she has a natural interest in mysterious situations. In this first volume of what is sure to be a popular series, Herculeah becomes fascinated with a forbidding estate and a frightening-looking client of her mother's. She capitalizes on her contact in the police department (her father) and listens to her mother's recorded interviews with her client; by refusing to follow rules set by her parents when she is driven to get closer to the truth, she succeeds in closing a case. She escapes after being locked in a dark and musty basement and discovers a hidden staircase, at the bottom of which lays the long-missing, dead owner of Dead Oaks. Byars has created a likable cast of main characters. Herculeah's friend Meat serves as the perfect comic foil for her intensity; he seems as if he could be a first cousin to Bingo Brown. There is plenty to laugh at in this book, including classic chapter headings guaranteed to cause shivers for the uninitiated; practiced mystery readers may feel that they are in on a bit of a joke and appreciate the hint of parody. This is a page-turner that is sure to entice the most reluctant readers.-Ellen Fader, Oregon State Library, Salem (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Given a policeman for a father and a private investigator for a mother, could 13-year-old Herculeah Jones be anything but a sleuth? Drafting her neighbor and sometimes reluctant sidekick, Meat, she sets out to uncover the mystery of the decaying mansion known as Dead Oaks, eventually finding the body from a long-ago murder and correctly concluding that a particularly disconcerting client of her mother's is to blame. With her eye for telling detail and her penchant for strong, quirky characters, the Newbery Medalist spices her narrative with equal measures of suspense and humor (for example, Herculeah's father, with his chronically rumpled jacket and loose tie, looks ``not like a detective, but like a man who was lost''). Herculeah, as strong and dauntless as her name suggests, emerges as a distinctive and engaging heroine. The conclusion may not be altogether satisfying--Herculeah literally stumbles across the body, instead of reasoning out its location, and the pivotal figure of the murderer remains shadowy. These quibbles notwithstanding, Herculeah's adventures are sure to entertain, and hints of a sequel are heartening. Ages 8-12. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
With a police detective and a private eye for parents, Herculeah finds that curiosity and sleuthing come naturally. When she and her intrepid -- if somewhat inept -- sidekick, Meat, become intrigued by one of her mother's clients, a fast-paced mystery develops that doesn't require much effort from the reader to analyze or to enjoy. A welcome entry into the field for young mystery fans. From HORN BOOK 1994, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A versatile standby (1971 Newbery) brings her usual brisk aplomb to a projected series about a self-reliant early teen whose first adventure is closer in spirit, despite her name, to the Nancy Drews recalled by its jacket than to the exploits of Indiana Jones. Neither of Herculeah Jones's divorced parents- -Dad's a cop, Mom's a PI--welcomes her participation in discovering the role played by the hulking ``Moloch'' in an apparent death ten years ago in the empty old mansion known as Dead Oaks. Still, the girl and her sidekick, Meat, explore the house, where someone traps Herculeah; fortunately, she's able to burst open the nailed-shut door. Finding out that the Moloch is Mrs. Jones's client, they eavesdrop on a tape of an interview between the two and learn his identity. In the end, Herculeah not only deduces what happened years ago but locates a missing body by inadvertently tumbling down a secret stairway. For sophisticated readers, it might have been more fun if Byars had chosen to parody the genre; instead, she plays it almost straight, although there are occasional touches of wit in the pert dialogue and descriptions. Meanwhile, she establishes characters with a sure touch and provides enough spooky atmosphere to bring readers back for more. A promising start for a series that could easily become a popular alternative to mass-market mysteries. (Fiction. 8-12)
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-6. Byars shows how delightful middle-grade mysteries can actually be. It's her quirky, wonderful characters that make the difference. Herculeah Jones didn't get her name because she was "dainty and shy." She's bossy, obstreperous, and curious to a fault, and with her father a police officer and her mother a private investigator, there's always plenty to attract her attention. Just as snoopy is her hefty, totally devoted sidekick, Meat, though he's as bumbling and meek as she is efficient and brave. Their Holmes-Watson relationship is an integral part of this refreshing whodunit, which also offers genre fans genuine suspense as well as some laugh-out-loud comedy. The first in a promised series, it finds the investigative duo enmeshed in the mystery surrounding a creepy old house and Mrs. Jones' equally creepy new client. Byars adds such zest to traditional plot conventions that readers will anx~iously await the pair's next adventure. ~--Stephanie Zvirin