Some of you have heard me talk about the book Whales on Stilts in the past. Some of you have even read it. It's a beautiful thing; a wonderfully pulpy, silly, quickly-read children's book of a thing. Well, I've just finished the sequel, The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen.
It's not as good as its predecessor, but maybe that's just because I prefer pulp adventure more than I prefer detective novels - and as the word "clue" in the title might tell you, this is an example of the later. It's a little less manic, I think, but shares the same style - an odd wink-and-a-nod way that the author breaks the fourth wall and addresses the reader; a certain tongue-in-cheek approach to laying out what the author acknowledges are tropes.
You think it's just a totally silly, if somewhat self-aware for the benefit of adults, children's novel. But..
Well...
There's a question I've been asking myself since I read Whales On Stilts. A question about one of the characters, Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, and the issue of timing. Towards the end of ...Lederhosen, two of the main characters raise that very same question, lay it hauntingly right on the table, and then take it one step further.
If the title alone were not enough, this wonderful step would make me slaver for the next book in the series,
April cannot come soon enough.