Amazon.com Book Description:

"First and foremost, this is a book about death. Okay, so it doesn't start with an actual death like the Unlikely Exploit which precedes it . . . but you'll find a lot of it about. Life's like that, though, I'm afraid. Then again, if we didn't have death, this little planet would be a very overcrowded place. Not only that, most buildings would be old people's homes and entire continents would be taken up with retirement village after retirement village, populated by some very old and wrinkled people indeed.

The second in the darkly hilarious new series that started with The Fall of Fergal

In this, the second Unlikely Exploit, Fergal McNally's brain-last seen in a pickling jar in the basement of the Sacred Heart Hospital-is stolen, and the remaining McNally children are mysteriously drawn to Fishbone Forest and the forgotten crumbling mansion which lies at its heart. Here they meet the terrifying teddy-bear-clutching Mr. Maggs who is planning to make sweeping changes to the world . . . which is all rather unlikely, isn't it?

Packed with humor and excitement, this is another surefire winner."

For grades 4-6.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to the ABC2007 Organising Committee for attendees'' goodie bags. If KEMS and I can''t attend in person, maybe this way we can participate vicariously!

Released for the 2007 Never Judge A Book By Its Cover Release Challenge: Week 31 (Anything Goes).

Gratefully received, to be released at the convention in October. Thanks from the convention committee.

Ooooh look - I just found this today on one of the kids' bookshelves.... oops, sorry! Must've picked it up from the table of temptation way back when.
Thanks.
=)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off in the mail to Sally906. An extra!
cheers!

Arrived today with a bookray book - thanks :)

I read in the blurb that this story was a cross between Monty Python and Dickens – and being a lover of both I picked it up. Thankfully the blurb proved to be a very apt description indeed. The story starts just after book one in the series stopped, with the death of Fergal McNally when he falls out of a window. In their grief the family hasn’t noticed that Fergal’s brain is missing and the reader soon learns that the brain is making its way, in a pickle jar full of vinegar, to a spooky and dilapidated mansion in the middle of the nearby FishboneForest.

The remaining McNally children eventually discover what has happened and sneak into the forbidding forest to get their brother’s brain back. Unfortunately Mr Maggs, a crazy and dangerous teddy-bear clutching villain, doesn’t want to part with the brain, he has wicked plans for it.

I haven’t read the first book in the series, but it was not detrimental to my enjoyment of book two. HEIR OF MYSTERY was a fast read and jam-packed with laugh-out-loud silliness that was a perfect contrast to the scary stuff that was going on. Despite the size of the book the characters of the children come alive; as well as the delicious, yet wacky evilness of the baddie and his dumb sidekick.

As well as telling the story really well, Author Philip Ardagh conjured up vivid pictures in my mind, and the illustrations were great too. A perfectly twisted horror read for Halloween.

Taking to meet-up if not collected will wild release somewhere in shopping square

Picked up at the meet up

A light read about death!!!! A strange tale about a strange group of people - complete with plenty of chuckles

Am taking to the meetup - if no one takes I will leave at/near cafe

Picked up at the meet-up. Adding to Mt TBR.

Clever, funny …and very strange.

Book of the Month Release

Arrived yesterday. Thank you so much!!!