Something Wicked: A Horatio Wilkes Mystery - Hardcover

Gratz, Alan M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803736665 ISBN 13: 9780803736665

Publisher: Dial, 2008

Synopsis

Attending the Scottish Highlands Festival in Tennessee, Horatio Wilkes gets wrapped up in a dangerous mystery when the founder of the event is murdered and his son is suddenly arrested without any real proof of committing the crime.

About this title

About the Author:

Alan Gratz lives in Bakersville, North Carolina.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 10 Up—Horatio Wilkes, the teen sleuth from Something Rotten (Dial, 2007), takes on another case in this contemporary reworking of Macbeth. He's attending a Scottish Highland Fair atop a mountain in Tennessee with his old buddy Mac, Mac's controlling girlfriend (named Beth, no less), and their families. Horatio doesn't like Beth, and his friendship with Mac becomes even more strained after a palm reader predicts that Mac will win the Highland decathlon and become "king of the mountain." When Mac's grandfather Duncan, the mountain's owner, is murdered, Horatio gradually discovers that Mac has slipped into madness and resorted to violence to make the prophecy come true. The insane obsession of Shakespeare's character doesn't translate well into modern times here because Mac's motives are weak, and the insanity they cause seems a bit of a stretch. Horatio talks and acts more like a 30-something P.I. than a teenager, and it's hard not to wonder where his parents are when he is severely beaten up and works with police to solve the murder. This story has some fun aspects, but the literary references will be lost on all but those well-versed in Macbeth. The narrative is riddled with sexual innuendo and smart-alecky metaphors that will soon become tiresome to even the most sarcastic teen readers.—Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School Library, Loveland, CO
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About this edition

• Publisher: Dial
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0803736665
• ISBN 13: 9780803736665
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 265