Books

REVIEWS

“An unusu­al approach to vam­pires with shud­ders tem­pered by plen­ty of humor. Read­ers will hap­pi­ly wel­come back Quin­nie and the Maid­en Rock­ers.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“This sec­ond out­ing does­n’t suf­fer from the awk­ward stum­bles that plague many fol­low-up nov­els. Sur­risi cre­ates char­ac­ters with mem­o­rable per­son­al­i­ties that come togeth­er in the detailed Maine set­ting. Unlike some fic­tion­al detec­tives, Quin­nie does­n’t solve the mys­tery so much as dis­cov­er inter­est­ing clues, but that seems real­is­tic giv­en her age. Read­ers will enjoy the reveals as much as Quin­nie does, though there are con­se­quences for all of her mid­night high jinks. The vam­pire plot adds to the book’s appeal. VERDICT: A live­ly Maine mys­tery with spooky ele­ments that kids will rel­ish. The char­ac­ters are a lit­tle old­er than the intend­ed audi­ence, but the sto­ry is suit­able for a wide age range.” (School Library Jour­nal)

“From its quaint coastal set­ting, to its col­lec­tion of quirky inhab­i­tants and vis­i­tors, Sur­risi sets her snare of mys­tery to a guar­an­teed sur­pris­ing out­come. Once again, Quin­nie and cohorts are relent­less­ly on the case!”(Rita Williams-Gar­cia, New­bery Hon­or-award-win­ning author of One Crazy Sum­mer)

“Espres­so-drink­ing vam­pires in small-town Maine! What’s not to love about that? A fast-paced page turn­er with just the right amount of spooky. C. M. Sur­risi is a mas­ter of mid­dle grade mys­tery.” (Bar­bara O’Con­nor, award-win­ning author of How to Steal a Dog)

“Sur­risi con­cocts a juicy small-town mys­tery out of tan­ta­liz­ing inci­dents and clues, red her­rings, wild imag­in­ings, thrilling­ly risky man­age­ment (and mis­man­age­ment) of parental expec­ta­tions, and plot twists that here range from lit­er­ary leg­erde­main to a real bank rob­bery. Quin­nie’s present-tense account flies along to a scary (but tragedy-free) cli­max that deliv­ers just deserts to all, while leav­ing her, inex­plic­a­bly, not ground­ed for life. A com­fy romp.” (Book­list)