The Boy Detective Fails

July 17, 2006
Playing such mysteries as "The Case of the Brown Bunny" against the mysteries of mortality and mankind's capacity for evil, the latest from Meno (Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir
) presents former child sleuth Billy Argo at 30, having just finished a 10-year stint in a mental hospital, where he was confined after his teenage sister Caroline's suicide. Unhappy, painfully shy and doped up on antianxiety drugs, Billy arrives in New York City and is admitted to a psych halfway house. Haunted by the mystery of his sister's death and feeling that a lapse in his sleuthing may be to blame, Billy is determined to find out the reason for her suicide and to punish those responsible. He soon finds allies in two bright and unpopular children who live across the street, and clues to relevant past cases from lifelong arch-enemy Professor Von Golum (who happens to live across the hall). Not all the plot strands pan out, and the effect is more impressionistic than narrative (various codes strewn throughout have their own digressive pleasures). But the story of Billy's search for truth, love and redemption is surprising and absorbing. Swaddled in melancholy and gentle humor, it builds in power as the clues pile up.

Starred review from September 1, 2006
In their youth, Billy Argo, his kid sister Caroline, and their friend Fenton solved a series of puzzling crimes with only a cheap detective kit and their imaginations. After Billy goes to college to study criminology, Caroline commits suicide and guilt-ridden Billy attempts it, ending up heavily sedated in a mental hospital. Ten years later, he connects with two other outcast, nerdy sorts to help solve the mysteries going on in their lives and in that of a kleptomaniac widow who is as fragile and traumatized as he is. The one mystery he can't solve is Caroline's death. This is postmodern fiction with a head "and" a heart, addressing such depressing issues as suicide, death, loneliness, failure, anomie, and guilt with compassion, humor, and even whimsy. Meno poses the existential question, -Is it more frightening to accept our lives as they are than it is to entertain a fantasy of hope? - and leads one to believe that hope may not be a fantasy after all. Meno's best work yet; highly recommended for both public and academic libraries." - Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. Lib., Chico"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2006
Adult/High School -Following up on his coming-of-age tale, "Hairstyles of the Damned" (Akashic, 2004), Meno has created a wry and somewhat surreal novel chronicling the adventures of Billy Argo, boy detective. Given a True-Life Junior Detective Kit by a relative, he becomes a local celebrity when he solves a string of crimes of a type unfamiliar to most mystery-book heroes. The story turns even darker when Billy suffers a breakdown following the suicide of his younger sister and fellow crime solver. By turns comic and strange, the novel follows Billy through his travails in the fictitious city of Gotham, NJ. Teens will gravitate to the weirdness of this place where city buses, wax museums, school yards, small headless animals, and evildoers with missing body parts abound. Billy -s dreamy encounters challenge his courage and inadvertently bring resolution to the mystery of his sister -s death. The characters along the way are memorable and the bizarreness builds throughout. Readers - appetite for solving puzzles also increases as clues are dropped to help Billy in solving the big puzzle of the unknown. Always a challenge for adults, young or old, Meno is a talent worth following." -Thomas Fortin, Fargo Public Library, ND"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2006
Comedic, imaginative, empathic, and romantic, Meno, whose diverse works of fiction include " airstyles of the Damned" (2004) and " Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir " (2005), is particularly attuned to the intensity of childhood and its lifelong resonance. In this cartoony and dreamlike novel, Billy Argo of Gotham, New Jersey, receives a True-Life Junior Detective Kit for his tenth birthday, and in no time, the gifted boy detective becomes front-page news as he thwarts comic-book villains with the help of his younger sister, Caroline. But Caroline commits suicide, and Billy's grief is so profound he is institutionalized. Emerging from a mythic sleep at age 30, Billy--smart, kind, and wistful--ends up living in a bizarre halfway house and working a spooky job. It's always raining, buildings vanish into thin air, evildoers brazenly conspire, and Billy befriends precocious sister and brother misfits and falls in love with a pickpocket. Wizardly Meno entwines make-believe with emotional authenticity to create a playful yet plangent fairy tale-like satire in which detection acquires metaphysical dimensions. Atmospheric, archetypal, and surpassingly sweet, Meno's finely calibrated fantasy investigates the precincts of grief, our longing to combat chaos with reason, and the menace and magic concealed within everyday life. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)