Summary: Mo, Dale, and Harm have a new case: finding Dale’s outlaw dad. When his dad breaks out of jail before his trial, the Desperado Detectives have to track him down, but Dale also wants to prove his father’s innocence in the process.
Review: I’m glad this story was a significant improvement over the second in the series, though it still wasn’t as good as the first one. My ranking definitely goes 1, 3, 2. I liked this one because it went back to the roots of solving a regular mystery in their town, and there were no ghosts or weird unexpected supernatural elements involved like the second book had. One of my favorite about the series is actually the down-to-earthiness of it. The small-town setting of Tupelo Landing allows for such wholesome, fun characters that are a bit quirky, and that’s half the fun of the series! With this, though, some of the southern phrases did get lost on me. I didn’t always understand them and I got stuck sometimes for a second because of their unfamiliarity. Eventually I moved on, but it was a new experience for me.
I really enjoyed the added plot around Dale in this book, too. I enjoyed how Turnage made him into the lead investigator rather than Mo. It gave a lot more insight into his psyche that we didn’t previously have. I found it especially great to get to hear more of Dale as it revolved around his dad being the criminal in this book. I would love more Dale! He’s so interesting.
I think also, because the story was heavily focused on Dale, Mo was much less annoying in this book than the previous one. In book two, I found her to be quite insufferable. Here, though, she was okay. Not great… but okay.
I did find the mysteries to get confusing at a few times. It felt like they were solving two or three different things simultaneously, which I didn’t really like. However, in the end, it did all work out and make sense, but the journey wasn’t quite pleasant. The one plot line that I really didn’t feel was necessary was about Dale’s dog, Queen Elizabeth, being pregnant and Dale needing to decide who gets a puppy. It helped to characterize Dale a bit, but ultimately, it did very little for the story.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Recommended reader: Anyone who likes:
- Mystery
- Stories about friendship
- Criminal investigations
- Detectives
- Stories about family
- The South
- Dogs
Reviews of Previous Books:
Discussion Questions:
- What clues were there throughout the story that could’ve pointed to Capers being behind it all? What about Flick? How did Capers manage to keep her secret a secret and not get caught?
- How does Dale change as a person in this book? How does Mo’s opinion of him change in the story? What does he do that leads to these changes?
- Why does Dale always believe that Macon is innocent? Why does no one else believe him? How does Dale’s belief in Macon impact his relationships?
- What role does Lavender play in the lives of Dale and Mo? What role does he play in the story overall? What motivates him to want to leave Tupelo Landing? What does he ultimately decide to do and why?
Specifics of the book:
- Genre: Mystery
- Lexile Level: 540L
- Accelerated Reader Level: 4.1 (9 pts)
- Content Level: 6th
- Pages: 342
- Controversial Issues: None
Young Adult Lit Reviews 