Down the Rabbit Hole

Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams. (HarperCollins, 2005) First in the Echo Falls Mystery Series.

Ingrid gets a little turned around on her way to soccer practice and encounters Cracked-up Katie, a lady in town who has the reputation of being crazy. Katie calls her a cab, and Ingrid makes it to soccer practice. She doesn't tell her mother of her adventure, lest she get in trouble. That's fine until, the next day, a story in the local paper says that Katie was murdered. Besides feeling sad for Katie, Ingrid realizes she left her red puma cleats at Katie's house.

For various believable reasons, Ingrid doesn't come clean to her parents or anybody else about having seen Katie the day of the murder, but instead tries to solve the mystery on her own. In this way, she digs herself into deeper trouble...and deeper danger. She's aware of the trouble, but a little oblivious to the danger, which is in keeping with her character.

How would I describe Ingrid? She's funny. Smart. Wily. But a little--not airheaded, exactly. I'll say this: her brain needs to go on little excursions to find wherever it's going. She is one of my favorite characters ever. It goes Huck. Scout. Ingrid. Maybe Huck. Ingrid. Scout. No. Ingrid. Huck. Scout.

While Ingrid solves the mystery, she is involved with the community theater production of Alice in Wonderland. My experience with Alice is limited to the Disney movie and my eighth grade play, for which I can't even remember my role. But Abrahams makes it easy to draw connections to Alice because Ingrid, herself, draws these connections. (For instance, Cracked-up Katie's grandmother reminds Ingrid of the Queen of Hearts.) And even an Alice dummy like me can see that Katie is falling--no marching--deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole as she attempts to crack the case of Katie (who, like Ingrid, was an actress in the local theater.)

There are also references to Sherlock Holmes and old movies. Sherlock Holmes: again I'm a dummy, having only read The Red-Headed League. Now, old movies are something I'm more familiar with--or at least I was at Ingrid's age. The villain in this book reminded me of the delicious villains in the mysteries of that era. Meaning: I liked him. He was creepy in the smoothest possible way. The climax was also very movie-esque. My stomach was in knots. I kept reminding myself that they never kill the detective...and certainly not the child detective in a children's book! Did Nancy Drew die? No, she lived on to sport every hair cliche known to womankind.

The primary way the ending resembled a movie ending is that Ingrid followed the danger. The danger didn't follow her. In the other children's mysteries I've read, the children start out investigating, but typically, when they get to the point of no return, the villain sets the trap for them. That happens in this story, too, but then Abrahams pulls back and lets Ingrid head for the villain's lair. It was a "Good Lord! Don't go see what that noise is!" moment.

There is much more going on in this story: A mother and father trying to put together a real estate deal that involves selling off Ingrid's grandfather's land to the town rich people. (A story that dovetails into cracked-up Katie's murder.) A big brother who punches her. For shame. I know. I can't get through a review without saying something self-righteous. But seriously. For shame. And a grandfather who is teaching Ingrid to be stone cold. A skill that comes in handy at the end of this mystery.

The cover of this mystery has a quote from Stephen King: "My all-time favorite. Astonishing." I sort of ignored this because J.K. Rowling had a quote about the Cirque du Freak series, which I hated. The main character in that book inexplicably steals a spider and then almost lets his best friend die of a poisonous bite rather than coming clean. Ingrid keeps secrets, too, but she is trying to help the late Cracked-up Katie--not turn her back on her. And she barely knows the poor lady.

I don't know why I'm comparing the two, except to say that I don't expect great authors to also be great at picking great books. But in this case, I agree word-for-word with Stephen King. I, too, thought this was my all-time favorite. Astonishing.

After reading it, I logged onto my public library account, which is my rabbit hole. I checked out all Echo Falls mysteries, plus Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, plus several Sherlock Holmes Mysteries. But before doing any of this, my first order of business was to convince my 9-year-old son to read Down the Rabbit Hole.

I don't typically tell my son what to read. He likes to choose his own books, or talk things over with his librarian. I don't interject myself into sports conversations between him and his barber, and the same goes for book talk with him and his librarian. But I made an exception here. "Really," I said. "You have to read this. It's kind of scary, though." I think that hooked him. He wanted to start it last night. But I was like, "Um, I'm still reading it." And the hook pulled tighter.

He's starting it today. Can't wait to see what he thinks.

How the parents were cut out of the picture: Ingrid cuts school and sneaks out at night to solve the crime. (They live in a big house, so I guess her parents can't hear her.)

The verdict: Like experiencing an old movie, Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, and the best character ever for the first time.