Behind the Curtain

Thirteen year-old Ingrid has noticed a sudden change in her fourteen year-old brother; mainly that he's now benching two hundred pounds and hanging out with an older loser who has more money than he should. Ingrid's dad is different too since his boss hired a new employee who is overly aggressive and spouts the motto, "Whatever It Takes." And someone is filing complaints with the city to try and have her grandfather's farm taken from him. Since Ingrid takes most of her advice from Sherlock Holmes, her nosiness is noticed quickly and makes her a target for a kidnapping attempt, but no one, including the police chief, believes her, so she has to solve all the family mysteries herself.

This is the second "Echo Falls Mystery", after Down the show more Rabbit Hole, which I read last year. I liked that one better- it was more everything. Fun, more tense as it began with a murder , more convincingly in the voice of a young but intelligent girl (the author is male and looks to be mid-50's). While I still like Ingrid here, the author seemed to write in his own tastes for hers: she loves the 40's Sherlock Holmes movies, the 60's version of "The Producers", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", drinks Fresca? It was a little weird. I'll continue the series as it's a a good story to relax with. show less

2nd in the Echo Falls series. All the elements are the same: engaging characters, Ingrid's emulation of Holmes, spot-on dialog, and the whole Echo Falls gang. New mystery though, and still pretty easy to figure out, but fans will keep reading.

Would have been better if I had read Down the Rabbit Hole first. Very American; children going to see Monster Trucks, and playing soccer; having their daily newspapers delivered to their front lawns...the story mostly reminded me of Ruby Redfort by Lauren Child; a child amateur sleuth who gets kidnapped, escapes, and tries to prove her doubtful story. I felt the story was slow paced and lingered too much on the soccer games whilst it rushed through the adventure parts. I did like the inclusion of the St Joseph statues being used as talisman for estate agents.

Second book in the Echo Falls series. Just like her hero, Sherlock Holmes, Ingrid is on the trail of a number of mysteries which all seem to interconnect. Why is her Dad always at the office and so put out by the new female vice president who has suddenly become her soccer coach too? Why is her brother so grumpy but suddenly so strong and what does this have to do with the bottle she found in the treehouse and with her best friend's brother ( who has been in "Juvy") suddenly becoming Ty's best friend? Who wants her Grandpa to sell the farm and why will NOBODY believe her when she says she was kidnapped? Nancy Drew meets Stephen King.p.152 -158. The consequences of no-one believing her story that she was kidnapped because there is no show more evidence. show less

(as I posted on my blog: http://betweenthepagesandi.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/behind-the-curtain-by-peter-...

This was the first of Mr. Abrahams’ books that I have read. That probably did not help my case though, since a few things were lost on me (probably by reading the book out of order in the series).

This book reminds me of an updated and not-so-’hokey’ (for lack of a better word) version of the Nancy Drew series, which was one of my favorites when I was growing up. Ingrid is a much more believable character than Nancy, having a deep passion for Sherlock Holmes which I share. Ingrid also does not have the connections to the police that Nancy did, making her more believable as an 8th grader and less like a fictional character.

The show more scenes in the beginning of the book jumped around a little too much for my taste (with little in between to transition through the incidents). These seemingly separate incidents didn’t really piece together until further into the book, which would have usually turned my interest elsewhere. However, the characters that Mr. Abrahams wrote into this piece did keep me interested long enough to start to see how so many different things fit into one large puzzle. Once these pieces began to fall together I quite enjoyed working my way through this mystery. show less

Behind The Curtain An Echo Falls Mystery by, Peter Abrahams.
This was a really cute book,the heroine's name is Ingrid and she is in Middle School.Her favorite books to read are Sherlock Holmes.She's already solved one crime in her town but this time the criminals are making it look like she is making the whole thing up so she sets out to clear her name, and save her dad's job.Very well written 4 Stars.

I enjoyed this predictable tale. My only complaint would be about the sheer amount of unnecessary foul language. Far too much considering this book's target audience is middle schoolers.