Came for the title, stayed for the story. The Mob, gangs, corruption, and cars in a town in the mountains back East somewhere. Moves right along.
Quote:
"...long number at the bottom. And that ones' a pay phone..." -- (pg. 219) In 1959 I thought it was more usual to have the telephone exchange letters at part of the "number", rather than a string of digits.
I quite liked the part about the cat and the rose bush. And I laughed at a couple of other sentences. And I'm glad I learned about Buranovskiye Babushki. And filk, I looked it up, that was interesting.
Sammy meets an odd old lady while delivering flowers to a funeral. Ends up finding a hidden stash of gold coins! The hiding place of which I actually figured out beforehand. Yay me! Good story!
Sammy and Marissa take the bus to Hollywood to confront Sammy's mom, er, "Aunt Dominique". Someone who looks just like Sammy's mother is murdered, and Sammy saves the day by discovering just who done it.
Sammy is tasked with finding a stolen dog, or risk being revealed to be living at her grandmother's apartment by a mean old lady. Also, an old woman dies. Good story, a bit weepy in parts.
Another great mystery solved by Sammy, and lessons learned. I kinda suspicioned "who-done-it", which is very unusual for me, but it was still fun. On to the next one!
The shocking revelation in the last third of the book totally blew me away! The two boys are just having fun, when this awful thing happens. I was really enjoying myself with the boy's shenanigans when the story real serious. A very good book.
Jon to goes the planet Heaven to visit a theme park and capture the evil nano manipulating genius who is experimenting on children. Another woman bites the dust, and we learn some interesting stuff about Lobo, the most sarcastic spacecraft in the universe.`
Quote:
"I believe there are washing machines that are more adept with women than you," Lobo said... (pg. 253)
The jacket quote says "A funny and charming story". It is a good story, but it is neither funny nor charming. Goofy romance at end. The last line implies a future book that might BE funny and charming.
Wendy finds magical glasses that allow her to see all sorts of strange things. A pretty excellent story, moves right along. Poignant subplot of grandmother who has Altzheimers. One weep.