Murphy Sallis (Sally Murphy) commissions S. Theodora Markson to steal the statue of the Bombinating Beast and deliver it to its rightful owners. She is really an actress pretending to be Mrs. Sallis, the real Sallis family having moved out of the mansion long ago. As with the originals, Lemony has a way with words. Numerous times I found myself stopping to think about one of his signature offhand comments, sayings that reveal a keen sense of understanding of the world around him. I also enjoyed the little game he plays with the audience, of describing a book plot without actually giving away the title. In this way he often blurs the lines between children's lit and adult fiction, as you being to wonder who this series is truly meant for. Catchphrase: Several times each book, a character will make a question and another will respond "That's the wrong question".

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder: In Chapter Six, while waiting for Theodora at the lighthouse, Lemony reads a book about a family in a big woods "who liked to make things." Exact Words: Lemony promised to help Ellington, and her father. He views feeding him to the Bombinating Beast as doing just that. I was also impressed by a solid cast of women characters, both heroes and villains. Lemony may be the narrator but he is surrounded by interesting women: the obsequious S. Theodora, the principled Moxie Mallahan, the duplicitous Ellington Feint. Although I would have been much happier if Handler or his collaborator Seth had made some effort to incorporate characters of color verbally or visually. (Using jazz artists' names does not count: Ornette, Ellington, Armstrong.) But the truth is like a doorknob. You can stumble around in the dark, and when you finally grasp it, you may end up someplace terrifying."Much as the series opened with a parody of 'The Maltese Falcon', it concludes with a version of 'Murder on the Orient Express'. Hostilities between the villainous Inhumane Society and the VFD gang have escalated throughout the series - from theft to kidnap to arson - so murder is the inevitable next step, and all of the gang - benevolent, malevolent and ineffectual - are present and correct. Who committed the murder? How did they flee the scene of the crime? Why are the police so reluctant to investigate?

Shout-Out Theme Naming: As with The Series of Unfortunate Events, many characters are named after authors and other famous people, especially those associated with Film Noir and Hardboiled Detective stories: Hector says at the end of the book, "Monty's worried". This is most likely a reference to Montgomery Montgomery. He also mentions a "Haruki" being worried, which is also the name of a patient in The Hostile Hospital, possibly confirming her membership in V.F.D. Handler signed with Egmont Publishing (UK) in August 2009 and Little, Brown and Company (U.S.) in November 2009 to begin working on the series. [1] [2] Although the author switched from his former publisher, HarperCollins, to Little, Brown and Company, he continued to work with his longtime editor Susan Rich. [3] Parental Favoritism: Sharon Haines. is so desperate to get her daughter out of Hangfire's grasp that she's willing to sell out her son to him. The Bellerophone Brothers; Pip and Squeak, taxi drivers in Stain'd by the Sea, always looking for a literary tip.Dashiell Qwerty is named after Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon, and the QWERTY keyboard layout. Pecuchet (Pip) and Bouvard (Squeak) Bellerophon are two brothers who operate the Bellerophon Taxi while their father is ill. Pip steers while seated on a pile of books and Squeak uses the pedals and reads to his brother while they wait for the next fare. They work for tips, appreciating tips for good books to read over monetary tips.