Theo, Ricky and Angela have to become Lie Detectives to
uncover the truth about top inventor, Darius Marriott, after he comes to give a
talk at school and collapses. Who is out to get him, and why does their friend
Bullet seem so involved? They're determined to get to the bottom of it all -
but that could prove to be much more dangerous than they think . . .
I’m
choosing this because:
As you’ve
seen from my previous reviews, I’ve read the other two books in this three book
omnibus edition of the ‘Deadly Dare
Mysteries’ So I think it definitely makes sense for me to review the final
story in the book. As I start this it’s still March so will still be going
towards my Malorie Blackman month features (yay!). I’m also finding this a
great way to read books off Spencer so I can conquer him and be like “HA!!! I
READ ALL MY BOOKS!”. As you can see, I really want to be the boss of my TBR
pile. But at least there’s no Malorie Blackman books there now!
Judging a
book by its cover:
Well it’s
purple with the poison pen style writing that was on my copy of ‘Pig-Heart Boy’ (OMG!! I have matching
covers!!!) and I have to say it’s really eye-catching!! I do love bright
covers, they really brighten up bookshops everywhere!! I think it played a
major part of me buying it. I love a good cover me!! So shallow, sometimes it
can only lead to disappointment though...
Pricing the
(possible) awesomeness:
Well..
You want a price... of course you do. I paid £2.50 and purchased it from my
local British Heart Foundation charity shop (YAY!!! Helping those with heart
issues!!). However You want to know about it new don’t you? Amazon have this
for £4.49 paperback and £4.27 on Kindle. I got it cheaper... HA!
This is my
least favourite of the three stories. It dragged a bit and didn’t hold my
attention as well. I did keep drifting off into nowhereness. I didn’t feel as
invested in the mystery, probably because I didn’t like Darius – more about him
later in this review. The story started promisingly with an encounter shrouded
in secrets to be revealed and my interest was piqued but it deteriorated
slightly as I felt that I was being left out of the loop (in a bad way). The
writing itself was good though and I did like it, I just feel the pace was
slightly off and I had some character issues which I’ll address now.
Darius – Well
he certainly likes to enter a story with a bang. At the end of his first scene
he’d keeled over! Just because that much attention isn’t enough we then find
out a revelation about him and one of our school kid heroes. I didn’t
particularly like him and he did nothing to change that. Everyone around him is
collateral damage, as long as he comes out on top all is well with the world. He
needs a few lessons in respect. I’ll teach him.
Bullet – Oh
Toby! You’ve let me down! I thought with all your geekiness you’d be super
awesome and remain untainted by the influence of idiots. Unfortunately not
because for a portion of this book I was wondering if he’d been reading “How to
be a Tool” because he was a bit of a spanner! That pretty much sums up Bullet
for me. Disappointment on my part and idiocy on his!
Theo – Theo
got a slight taste of his own medicine in this. If you read book 2 you’ll know
what he did and in this one Ricky does it back. Mature boys! I do like him but
I can’t help but think he’s a bit bratty and spoilt and whiny here. I really
didn’t like that one iota. I want my lead character to be strong, brave and
coolness personified and Theo wasn’t really anything like that here. He seems
to have lost a few brain cells as well. He should see a doctor about that before
it gets worse and he turns into an airhead.
Overall not
as enjoyable as its predecessors but by no means is this a bad book. The
writing is of the high standard you come to expect from Malorie Blackman. You
know you’re in safe hands when she’s at the helm, but the plot and the
character development just weren’t doing it for me. I think my age has finally
caught up with me. I’m too old for this caper. I can see what she was trying to
do.
Mainly for the writing. My issues are personal
ones and it’s not like I’m sat here raging so there’s no need for me to
penalise this too heavily. I do think that kids should read this and the
previous stories. Buy them for the little ones!! Spread the joy of reading!
<
No comments:
Post a Comment