Yeah, of course Pseudonymous Bosch’s THE NAME OF THIS BOOK IS SECRET is playfully tongue-in-cheek. How could you tell?
Another children’s book that can be enjoyed by adults, SECRET casts two young schoolmates smack-dab in the middle of a magic-laden mystery: the adventurous and large-eared Cass, who never leaves anywhere without a well-stocked backpack, and Max-Ernest, a peculiarly named philosophical boy with spiky hair and an unhappy home life. They quickly form a collaborative friendship when a magician in town is killed in a suspect house fire.
Cass’ grandfathers come into possession of the magician’s boxed “Symphony of Smells,” containing bottled vials of various odors … plus a hidden message asking for help. For exactly what, the kids are unsure. But when they investigate his home, they find his notebook and barely escape the clutches of a strange couple wearing out-of-season gloves.
Their distrust of the couple – aka Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais – proves well-earned when the doc and his accomplice kidnap a boy from their school. Guess who gives chase?
With a wry narrator whose interruptions, warnings and footnoted asides, SECRET comes off like a Lemony Snicket-y exercise in kids-in-peril fiction. It’s just oddball enough to succeed, even if the story has its problems. For example, neither lead is all that fleshed-out and the plot culminates in more of a clumsy set-up for future adventures than a full-fledged conclusion.
But there’s enough code-breaking, brain-sucking, mystery-busting and assorted tomfoolery to make SECRET fun enough to merit a read. Bosch – whoever he/she is – clearly had a good time writing this out in a seemingly top-of-mind style, so it’s hard not to feel some of that prickly, nudge-wink joy.
The book comes complete with whimsical illustrations by Gilbert Ford, a false ending and an appendix filled with bite-sized tutorials on tackling the codes, card tricks, compasses and other challenges faced by the book’s protagonists. If SECRET does branch out into future volumes, let’s hope they retain this sense of interactive wonder. –Rod Lott
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