South by South East

December 1, 2005
Gr 5-9 -Horowitz has created another well-written, well-paced spy melodrama. This fifth addition to the series will engage readers with its hilarious, nonstop story line. Tim Diamond, the world's worst detective, has few cases to solve, so he and his younger brother, Nick, are destitute until a stranger offers Tim a fistful of much-needed cash in exchange for his raincoat. With the stranger's violent death, Tim and Nick find themselves dealing with disbelieving police and people claiming to be government agents. The brothers have a multitude of hair-raising adventures, including one in which they are chased by a small plane in a scene reminiscent of Hitchcock's classic film "North by Northwest" (hence the book's title). The story ends as the sibs meet the chief villain on a village fair's Tunnel of Love ride. Tim is likable but clueless, and Nick, the narrator, the true brains behind their act." -Alice DiNizo, Plainfield Public Schools, NJ"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2005
G. 4-7. The title is but the first of many, many Hitchcockisms in the latest Diamond Brothers mystery. This time aptly named private eye Tim Simple and his cannier teenage brother, Nick, fall into a preposterously complicated plot involving MI6, a Dali painting, a Russian art collector, and an assassin with a missing finger. From the opening murder of secret agent Nick McGuffin in (what else?) a telephone booth to closing denouement in a carnival Tunnel of Love, this nonstop adventure will leave even readers who don't get all the references with a case of vertigo--as well as aching sides from some relentlessly witless dialogue.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)