You recognize the character names. Plum. White. Scarlet. Mustard. Green. Peacock. You are familiar with the weapons. Knife. Lead pipe. Revolver. Rope. Candlestick. Wrench. And you have visited those rooms countless times. Library. Study. Conservatory. Billiard room. Kitchen. Lounge. Hall. Ball room. C'mon. You know the game. Everyone knows the game. Everyone has played it at some point. And for those who are old enough, you remember going to the movie theater to see all of these things brought to life on the big screen (wondering which ending you would get to see!). And more recently, perhaps you read the two comic series published by IDW Publishing. Now, there's a young adult mystery series that gives readers a whole new look at this old favorite...
In the Hall with the Knife is the first Clue mystery. Written by
Diana Peterfreund and published by Amulet Books, this new series was a
huge surprise to me when I happened across this book at my local Barnes
& Noble. I saw the title and thought, "that's funny - sounds like
something from Clue." So, I pulled it off the shelf, and imagine my surprise to find that it WAS indeed based on Clue.
Obvious.y, I couldn't pass that up. Being a young adult book, it is
set at a private school hidden away on a small, New England coast.
Mister Boddy is the headmaster, Mrs. White is the house-mother for Tudor House, the dorm for the upper echelon of young ladies who attend Blackbrook Academy. Then there is Rusty Nayler, the school custodian. And, of course, there are all the students...
Beth "Peacock" Picach ... the star tennis player who has a quick temper and a secret that could get her kicked out of the academy ...
Finn Plum ... the super-smart, super-quick witted science major who will turn on anyone if it will get him further ahead - and who has his own reasons for all the lies he tells ...
Vaughn Green ... he's attending Blackbrook on a scholarship, and he helps out the custodian, the headmaster, and everyone else ... but his brother is a reminder that everything is not what it appears ...
Scarlett Mistry ... a girl of wealth and stature, she keeps her eyes and ears on everyone and everything - nothing goes on at Blackbrook that she doesn't know about - or so she thinks ...
Sam "Mustard" Maestor ... a former military school student who transferred to Blackbrook under mysterious circumstances, which he will do just about anything to keep a secret ...
Kayla and Karlee Gould ... twins who appear to be flightly and self-absorbed, but like everyone else at this school, they have their own secrets ...
It's like a good, old-fashioned teen soap opera-turned-murder mystery when a deadly snow storm traps everyone at Tudor House. That first night, with everyone scattered throughout the house (the library, the billiards room, the study, and so on), a murder occurs - and when they wake up in the morning, they discover the body (yeah, that pun is intended) of Mr. Boddy in the conservatory with a knife protruding from his chest! So, right away we know the where and the how - all we need to do is figure out the who.
Peterfreund tells a superb tale of intrigue, mystery, lies, betrayals, and secrets as these students have to put aside their differences and work together to figure out who could have killed their headmaster. Was it an unseen looter? Was it an enemy of Mr. Boddy's? Was it a suicide? Or - a possibility that none of them want to consider - was it someone that was in the house? The game's afoot, so to speak, and Orchid and Mustard seem to be the ones who are truly determined to get to the bottom of things. Scarlett and Plum have their own issues, Green sets off with Rusty to see if they can make it through the storm to the nearest village to summon the police, and Peacock wants nothing to do with any of them. But the questions remain:
Why was Peacock called to Mr. Boddy's office the day the storm hit, and why had she thrown the candlestick at him?
Why was Plum called to Mr. Boddy's office, and why is he so protective of the bag he brought with him to Tudor House?
Why was Orchid called to Mr. Boddy's office, and why does she seem to intent on making herself look plain when others can see the beauty in her eyes and face?
Why was Green acting so strange lately - one minute he's nice and helpful, the next he's mean and spiteful?
Why has Rusty not come back with the police?
Why does Mustard have so much knowledge about the type of knife used to kill Mr. Boddy?
Now, being a fan of Clue and of murder mysteries in general, the identity of the killer was not so difficult to pin point early on; however, it's not really the revelation of the killer's identity that is the joy of the story - it's following the characters along as they start to discover one another's secrets (as well as the secrets of Tudor House itself, including the hidden passages that lead from one room to another - I mean, this is Clue, after all, did you really think they wouldn't be there?). And while I will admit the story did seem to drag in a few places, over all it was paced fairly well, and the characters are diverse and each have their own story. Not all of their secrets are revealed in this first book, but some of them (such as Mustard), it's pretty easy for the reader to figure out what the secret is.
As with the game itself, it's a matter of crossing off names until you finally have only one left. But once the murderer is revealed, that's the end, right? Nope, not for this series! It seems that the murder of Mr. Boddy is only the beginning. Someone has set their sights on Blackbrook Academy, out to get revenge, so it's only a matter of time (like the second book, perhaps?) before someone else falls victim to another killer...
RATING: 7 broken pairs of glasses out of 10 for spinning a new twist on an old board game and making it a good read!
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