Description:

Madam Rosa, the eccentric local fortune teller, has been brutally murdered, and the case has everyone baffled. Herculeah has a pretty good idea who the killer is, but someone else has a vision too -- and wants to make sure Herculeah won't be around to see the future. "Byars grips the reader from the first sentence and doesn't let go until Herculeah solves the case." -- The Horn Book ** ### From School Library Journal Grade 3-6. Brian Fairman faithfully reads Betsy Byars' Herculeah Jones Mystery (Viking, 1995). As usual, Herculeah's curiosity gets her into all sorts of trouble and danger. She parrot-sits for a neighbor, Madame Rosa, who is a palmist and fortune teller. The parrot, Tarot, knows only one word?Beware! One day, Herculeah notices Madame Rosa's front door open and Tarot loose on the porch. She goes to return the parrot. The 70-year-old house is dark, the velvet drapes are drawn, and Tarot's parrot stand is knocked over. Her hair "frizzles" as it always does when there is danger. Madame Rosa doesn't answer her calls. Tarot continues to scream "Beware!" Herculeah leaves a phone message for her mom, a private investigator, to come help her. Herculeah finds Madame Rosa's dead body under the cloth draped table Madame Rosa used to tell fortunes. She calls her police lieutenant father. Herculeah and her friend, Meat, continue to try to solve the murder themselves. One of the most suspenseful episodes takes place in Madame Rosa's garden when the murderer threatens to kill Herculeah with a knife. Fairman reads with just enough suspense in his voice to keep listeners on the edge of their seats. The tapes can be used for individual or group listening. *Mary-Ellen Raup, North Colonie Central Schools, Newtonville, * Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. ### From Booklist Gr. 4^-6. The latest in Byars' new series which features amateur sleuth Herculeah Jones doesn't quite live up to the promise of *The Dark Stairs*. However, the characters still have lots of potential: intrepid, heroic Herculeah is a true descendant of Nancy Drew, with an insatiable curiosity that gets her into all sorts of trouble; Meat, her loyal but timid sidekick, is a swell comic foil. And there are a few suspenseful scenes, particularly as Herculeah prowls Madame Rosa's strangely quiet house and discovers the palmist's body, with a knife in its chest. It's the unraveling and the paltry list of suspects that are a mite rickety. Still, kids who are meeting this contemporary (Herculeah's parents are divorced, etc.) Holmes-Watson duo for the first time may be sufficiently charmed by the characters to overlook the plot's weaknesses, and because Byars doesn't overdo the violence, the story may be a good introduction to the genre for a child who wants to read a mystery but doesn't want to be too scared to finish it. *Stephanie Zvirin*