Tarot Says Beware (Herculeah Jones Mystery) - Hardcover

With a heroine named Herculeah, a sidekick known as Meat and a parrot called Tarot, it's obvious from the start that this is no ordinary mystery. Fairman takes his listeners through the twists and turns of the plot, giving voice to each sinister character with such skill that even the dead victim becomes a suspect. Young mystery lovers will cling to every word as Byars plants the clues that lead to a nearly fatal conclusion. B.L.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Grade 4-6?Tarot is not a pack of cards but a parrot, and a special concern of Herculeah Jones. Herculeah, named for the hero of a B movie, takes care of the parrot on occasion when its owner, local fortune teller Madame Rosa, goes out of town. Suspicious when she sees the door open and the bird outside, Herculeah enters the house and finds that the woman has been murdered. Naturally, the girl with the "radar hair" wants to know who did it, and why. She and her friend Meat get into several scrapes trying to get to the bottom of the mystery but in the end everything turns out well (except for poor Madame Rosa) and there is even a nice lead into the next adventure. The story is well plotted and the characters are nicely rounded. The dialogue is a bit self-conscious but readers will be so caught up in waiting for the next footstep on the creaky stairs that they probably won't notice. Much like the "Scooby Doo" cartoon series, there are hints of the supernatural that turn out to be the bad guys dressed "for success." Add for those readers past the "Encyclopedia Brown" (Lodestar) stage but not yet ready for Betty Ren Wright.?Patricia A. Dollisch, DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.