SLIS 5420 - Module 9 - Down the Rabbit Hole

Bibliography

Abrahams, P. (2005). Down the rabbit hole: An echo falls mystery (1st ed.). New York: Laura Geringer Books.

Summary

Ingrid should have waited for her parents to pick her up from the orthodontist’s office, but with her soccer practice time fast approaching and the field not that far away, she decides she can make it on foot. After walking for what she thinks should be the right amount of time, Ingrid becomes aware that she may be lost, and worse than that, she may be lost in the Flats, the worst part of her home town Echo Falls. While thinking about her situation, Cracked-Up Katie, the infamous crazy woman, asks her if she’s lost and offers to call her a cab to get her home. Ingrid reluctantly agrees and enters in Katie’s run down home to wait for the cab. The next day, Ingrid reads in the town paper that Katie was murdered that night in her home. Ingrid is dazed by the news, and becomes even more frightened when she discovers that she had left her soccer cleats in Katie’s home, which contain her name and address. Not wanting to be connected to the crime, Ingrid sneaks back into Katie’s home that night to retrieve them when she accidently arrives at the same time as the killer. Ingrid hides from the killer under Katie’s bed and sees that he is wearing Adidas shoes with green paint on them. Ingrid is compelled to find the person who murdered Katie and clear her own name in the process.

Impressions

The book was very good. The plot was well balanced around Ingrid’s personal life and her role in solving the murder of Cracked-Up Katie. Ingrid’s character was also well balanced between being a thirteen year old girl with braces and being a sleuth trying to solve a problem much bigger than she is. The main thing is that the story was balanced, which is difficult to do in mystery novels. The author didn’t give too much away to spoil the ending, but there were enough clues that with a bit of thinking on the readers part the culprit became more and more apparent as the story went on.

Reviews

“The charming 13-year-old heroine of Abrahams's (A Perfect Crime, for adults) murder mystery will guide readers through its many twists and turns. Ingrid Levin-Hill, who, like her hero Sherlock Holmes, is "a habitual noticer of little things," has just been cast as the lead in Alice in Wonderland when she finds herself in a different role--murder detective. The corpse is that of "Cracked-Up Katie," whom Ingrid encountered when she attempted to get from her orthodontist to soccer practice--and wound up five miles away in the poorest part of Echo Falls. The next day, the local paper states that Katie's body was found soon after Ingrid left her house; realizing she's left her red soccer cleats behind, Ingrid breaks in to retrieve them. But she's not the only one in Katie's house that evening. Ingrid's sleuthing is complicated by a budding romance with the police chief's son, and the dialogue crackles with wit--Ingrid gets the best lines. It's disquieting, however, that big brother Ty, the football star, blackens Ingrid's eye in anger without repercussion, and many of the supporting characters are more fully developed than her nuclear family; the town's newspaper editor, her curmudgeonly Grampy and even Cracked-Up Katie come across as more convincing. And dropped threads abound(e.g., will Grampy stave off developers by populating his farmland with endangered eastern spadefoot toads?) Readers who stick with this intelligent, if overstuffed novel will be clamoring for answers--and more of Ingrid. Ages 10-up.”

(2005). DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: An Echo Falls Mystery. Publishers Weekly, 252(14), 60.

“Impatient with mother for being late for her ride to soccer, Ingrid Levin-Hill, eighth-grade Sherlock Holmes fan and amateur actress, makes an impulsive decision to walk, inadvertently becoming a witness in the murder case of Cracked-up Katie, the weird lady in the rundown house on the wrong side of town. Ingrid is afraid to come forward with her first-hand knowledge, fearing her parents' reprimand for leaving the neighborhood. Landing the lead role as Alice in the town's playhouse production of "Alice in Wonderland," she becomes more curious about the playhouse's past performers and a possible connection to Katie's youth. As the police investigation gets further away from the truth and the wrong suspects are arrested, Ingrid takes increasingly daring risks to solve the case herself and eliminate the evidence she left behind indicating her own suspicious involvement. Abrahams has crafted a suspenseful page-turning drama complete with misleading clues and gutsy midnight escapades that make for thrilling intrigue right up to the culminating drowning-in-the-river scene. Ingrid's plucky, if not foolhardy, behavior will have readers both rooting and worrying for her simultaneously as she continues, like Alice, to fall deeper and deeper into the mystery's unfolding. Harrowingly absorbing.”

2005. "DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: An Echo Falls Mystery." Kirkus Reviews 73, no. 7: 411.

Library Use

Very good book for starting a reader in the mystery genre. The language is a bit coarse for younger readers, however, it sounds natural and teenagers will appreciate the fact that the book does not talk down to them.