Meddling Kids

April 10, 2017
Cantero (The Supernatural Enhancements) will win readers’ hearts with this goofy, smart love letter to childhood adventure and enduring friendship. It’s 1990, 13 years since the Blyton Summer Detective Club of Blyton Hills, Ore., solved the case of the Sleepy Lake monster. It was their last case, and now there are only four of them left: Andrea “Andy” Rodriguez, who is wanted in more than one state; bartender Kerri Hollis; Kerri’s excitable Weimaraner, Tim; and Kerri’s cousin, nerdy Nate Rogers. Peter Manner is missing, having supposedly committed suicide. Andy thinks there’s more to learn about the monster and convinces Kerri and Nate to return to Sleepy Lake, a scene of horror that’s shadowed their adult lives. When the four arrive at Sleepy Lake, they’re almost immediately attacked by terrifying lake creatures. Scooby Doo touches abound: there’s a nearby river called the Zoinx, Tim the dog is as much of a character as the humans, and they have pitch-perfect chase scenes through an underground mine and the haunted Deboën Mansion. There are Lovecraftian tentacles aplenty, and the villain is a powerful sorcerer who plans to summon a world-ending leviathan. The prose is fast and funny, and the quirky, lovable characters are absolutely irresistible. Agent: Emma Sweeney, Emma Sweeney Agency.

May 1, 2017
Barcelona-based novelist Cantero (The Supernatural Enhancements, 2014) returns with a lightly spun yarn steeped in decades-old American pop media.The members of the Blyton Summer Detective Club, who last adjourned in 1977 after sleuthing around the improbably named Zoinx River Valley in search of supernatural beings, have got the band back together a decade and a half later--well, with all but one of their number, who has inconveniently died. But are the dead ever dead? No, of course not. Of the original crew, Andy has turned into a butch, spiky young woman seemingly bucking for a dragon tattoo to call her own. Nate, "pale, blue-eyed, more worn but still fragile," let the ghosts get to him and has been in and out of mental institutions. Kerri has visions, too, but mostly ones brought on after one too many hits off the bottle. And there's a telepathic dog, too, that just may be living proof of metempsychosis. ("Please do not feel deceived: he has been your dog all this time. I just ride along.") If all this smacks of Scooby-Doo, then that's by design, though it's not the only mass-media allusion: glimmers of The Haunting, Dark Shadows, the Witch Mountain franchise, Halloween, and Tales from the Crypt dance above the swamp. There's even a satisfying explanation for "why bad guys charge at Jackie Chan in a single row," albeit the bad guys in question are your garden-variety hell beasts, "drooling, hissing, claw-waving creatures." Undergods, Thtaggoalites, uber-demons, six-limbed monsters: whatever the other side can throw at our gumshoes they deal with handily if cartoonishly. Cantero is a lively, capable writer, but this isn't much of a stretch for him; he seems determined to occupy the middlebrow midrange, turning in a piece better fitting an episode of The Librarians than, say, a spooky exercise by Guillermo del Toro. Meddling? Middling. A pleasing enough confection, but no great advance for either pop culture or the author's development.

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Starred review from June 1, 2017
Four kids and a dog spent the summer of 1977 solving mysteries. The last mystery, the one that brought them the most acclaim, involved a haunted house and a lake monster. Of course, the lake monster was just a man in a mask trying to scare off anyone from finding the rumored hidden treasure. (Sound familiar?) Thirteen years later, the kids are now grown, and the truth of that last mystery gnaws at them. Andy hasn't been able to hold a steady job but gravitates toward things that allow her to show her strength. Keri did not achieve her lifelong dream of becoming a biologist and instead wanders, tending bar. Nate has ended up in an asylum and is visited frequently by Peter, who actually died years before. Andy gathers the group to figure out the truth, and the gang returns to their old stomping grounds. What waits for them is a much darker world than Scooby Doo ever imagined. Cantero's imagination is vivid, and the story, once it gains speed, continues at a breakneck, roller-coaster pace. He plays with form and style, which makes for an enjoyable romp. Fans of modern takes on Lovecraft and those that are nostalgic for the cartoons of their childhood will like this novel, which is also a sure bet for your Stranger Things-themed display.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2017

In 1990, more than a decade after the Blyton Summer Detective Club's last case, tomboy Andy is wanted in two states; brilliant young biologist Keri bartends in New York with Sean, the high-spirited progeny of the club's original dog; and horror addict Nate is again hospitalized in a mental institution, with handsome club member Peter his only visitor. Except that Peter is dead. Where did it all go wrong? Darker than the meddling kids of Scooby Doo fame; from the author of The Supernatural Enhancements.

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