Never Trust a Dead Man
Common Sense Note
The author has a decidedly dark sense of humor. The scene where Selwyn is left to die in a tomb filled with decaying corpses, though leavened with that humor, may still be a bit much for some young readers.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
Selwyn may be the protagonist, but it's Farold (and Elswyth, when she's around) who holds the reader's attention. Selwyn is just the straight-man to Farold's delightful combination of petulance, snide sarcasm, whiny self-centeredness, deviousness, and good sense, all coming out of the mouth of a bat (and later a goldfinch, and then a duck).
Vande Velde has taken a classic mystery (red herrings, multiple suspects, a man wrongly accused) and added a touch of magic, a bit of the supernatural, and a dark sense of humor. The result is the author's specialty -- lightweight fun from start to finish. The mystery is nicely balanced to provide clues without being too predictable, and when the mystery slows, the humor fills in to keep things humming along.
From the Book:
The village of Penryth was too small to have its own priest and depended on the occasional wandering friar to bless weddings, babies, and the dead. But to leave an unblessed body unburied by nightfall -- especially the body of a murdered man -- was asking for trouble. No matter what the church said, the people knew there were night spirits eager to make a vacant body their own. Farold needed to be buried soon.
That was how they got the idea to solve two problems at once: "We will go up to the hills," Bowden proclaimed in his best official voice, which Selwyn had always thought sounded as though he had a pain in his lungs. "We will go to the burial caves, and there we will seal the dead victim in the tomb with his living murderer -- Farold and Selwyn together."
Plot Summary:
In a small, medieval village, Selwyn is accused of murdering Farold, his rival for Anora's affections. The townspeople, convinced of his guilt by circumstantial evidence, decide to seal Selwyn in the burial cave with Farold's body (and those of other dead villagers). There he meets Elswyth, a witch seeking "a lock of hair from a man newly dead" for a spell. In exchange for a year of service she agrees to free him, and for a few more years of service she agrees to bring back the spirit of Farold to proclaim his innocence.
But Selwyn messes up the spell, and Farold's spirit ends up in the body of a bat. Worse, he doesn't know who killed him. So Selwyn, disguised as a Pilgrim, and Farold, in the body of a bat, head back to the village to try to solve the mystery, bickering with and sniping at each other all the way.
Related Books:
Other Books by Vivian Vande Velde
Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird
Smart Dog
Curses, Inc. and Other Stories
More Humorous Mysteries
(George) by E.L. Konigsburg
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
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Sexual ContentAn old man leers at a young woman. All of the men leer at a barmaid. |
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ViolenceA fight. Selwyn is trapped in a cave with decaying bodies. |
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Message |
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Social BehaviorNo one in this story is really admirable. Some of the humor is a bit gruesome. |
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Commercialism |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoScenes of drinking in a bar. |
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